Six Kisses in Crimson
by PrincessChubbyCheeks
Summary: Variations on a Theme. From the cootie-coated beginning to the end of the world.
1. One

A/N: A bit belated, but happy birthday, Hak! Hopefully this makes up for how terrible I was to you in Lion and Lamb… heh…

So anyways, this will be a sixshot. For my darling Hak, who deserves more than anyone to be happy.

Much love,

Rosie

xxxxxx

Six Kisses in Crimson

By ObsessiveBrunette

Based on Akatsuki no Yona by Mizuho Kusanagi

x

It had been a long day. That was the only thought running through Hak's mind as he shucked his sweat-stained, dirt-filled training clothes and pulled on his black sleep pants before collapsing on to his bed. His mattress groaned under the sudden strain of his weight, while his aching muscles sighed in relief. His eyelids grew heavy… sleep was mere seconds away… sweet, merciful sleep…

Bang bang bang bang bang.

The boy was jolted awake by a sudden pounding on the door.

Bang. "Hak-" the Princess' voice pierced through the thick wooden door from the other side.. Bang bang. "Hak, are you there?" Bang.

"Princess?" he called out blearily, annoyance in his tone. What did she want him for now? Another escort mission to the Palace kitchens for a midnight snack? He already had the words he would tease her with on his tongue as he approached the door, beginning, "Princess, if you eat too many steamed buns, you'll grow fat and ug-"

He was cut off as he swung the door open and found the Princess mid-knock, tumbling forward fist-first with a squeak of surprise into his bare chest.

Uh…

She looked up at him in shock, eyes so innocent, so wide, so… glassy… She gulped, but neither of them moved away. "I'm sorry for barging in so suddenly… I needed… I- I need to talk to you…" her voice grew soft at the end of her sentence, so quiet he could barely make out the words she was saying, although the distress in her tone was much more easily discerned now without the door a barrier between them.

"Princess… have you been crying?" he brought a gentle hand up under her chin and tilted her head back ever so slightly, the moonlight illuminating tell-tale tear tracks on both cheeks.

His touch seemed to startle her back to her senses, and she hurriedly tore her gaze from his and took a step away from him. Then another.

"What happened? Are you hurt? Princess-"

Hak took a step forward and began to take another, intending to close the sudden distance between them again, but the red-haired girl's outcry stopped him in his tracks.

"I don't love him!" the words were nearly a strangled gasp. "I don't know when I realized- how I realized- how I could have thought- I don't… I don't know anything, Hak…" Her gaze was trained steadfastly on the floor. "He was always- he was always, I mean, and you were always… how could I not have seen? You were always… Hak… you..."

What?

"I don't understand," Hak could barely hear his stunned, raspy whisper for his heart pounding so loudly in his ears, but they seemed to reach the Princess, for she suddenly looked up, a kind of desperation in her eyes.

"Yes! Yes, that's exactly it, I don't understand! How could I not have seen? With Su Won it was- no, Hak, with you, it's- it's…" she looked so helpless. "With you…" She looked around wildly, down either end of the deserted hallway, down at the mere inches between their feet, down at her hands that she'd been furiously wringing. They stilled after a few heavy breaths and fell to her sides, but they seemed restless there. She folded them behind her back. She tucked them in the folds of her nightgown. She began to stretch one hand into the scant space between them, but stopped herself midway, drawing her hand back before starting again as she finally met his eyes another time. Her pupils were dilated, her breathing still shallow, but more even. Her eyelids drooped almost imperceptibly. "Hak, you're so close…" her fingertips reached his chest and her breath hitched at the contact. Her eyelids closed further.

There was only so much an eighteen-year-old boy could take.

He kissed her. They stumbled backwards into the hallway completely and she gasped as her back hit the wall opposite the doorway, his arms braced against the wall on either side of her.

Her hands really were restless. They were everywhere. On the sides of his face, the back of his neck, roaming his hair, his chest, her nails digging into his back...

He growled and took her into his arms, hands finding her rear and lifting her up so that her legs could wrap around his torso. His mouth began to wander as his hands kneaded her ass, eliciting soft surprised moans from her that intensified as he found a sensitive spot at the base of her throat and began to suck. "Hak…"

His mouth moved lower, to the flesh below her collarbone that grew more and more exposed as the tie on her nightgown unraveled. "Oh God…"

He took one hand from her rear and used it to paw open her silk garment further, completely untying the loose knot at her waist so that the robe fell from her shoulders. "Hak…"

She clung to him as he pushed her harder against the wall to make up for the lost support from her bottom. He could feel how warm she was through his pants, how wet she was already, and no doubt she could feel how eager he was too. He couldn't contain the low moan that escaped as she fisted her hands in his hair and he buried his face between her breasts. He could feel her tears begin to spill again as she let out a soft, shallow-breathed laugh. ""Hak, I love you…"

For a second, her proclamation made the world stop spinning. Hak lifted his head in utterly stunned disbelief.

"Princess?" the word was the softest of whispers. He hardly dared breathe for fear that he'd heard her wrong.

Her smile was brighter than her crimson hair as tears continued to pour down her cheeks. She leaned her forehead against his own. "I love you, Hak. So much." She laughed again. "I didn't know it was possible to love someone this much." At this she seemed to grow embarrassed, and moved to kiss him again, but he pulled his head back and put his hand under her chin once more, firmer but just as gentle as before, making her look him in the eyes.

If he'd thought his heart was loudly fast before, now it felt like it might burst out of his chest. He spoke slowly, for fear of not finding the right words. "Princess… I too…" His adam's apple bobbed nervously as he cleared his throat. "I love you. More than you could ever know."

When she tried to kiss him this time, he let her, lifting her from her spot between him and the wall and carrying her back to his quarters. He laid her down on the bed and watched in rapturous admiration as she undid her chest bindings, the moonlight gleaming off the pale, unblemished skin of her breasts. "Oh," she murmured as her nipples immediately peaked against the cold draft floating in from the hallway. "It's so cold…" her violet eyes turned innocently upwards to him. "Hak, the door?"

He reluctantly wrenched his gaze away and turned to comply with her request, but found the door suddenly slamming in his face with a bang loud enough to wake him from his sleep.

Wake him… from his sleep?

For a few moments, there was nothing but darkness, the warmth of his covers, and the lingering memory of another pair of lips on his.

No, not memory. A dream.

He stumbled out of bed as if it had burned him and made his way to the window. It was probably around three in the morning, by the moon's position in the sky. Without bothering to tug on shoes or a shirt, he climbed out the window and began scaling the wall down to the ground.

The water in the Palace lake would be freezing this time of the night. Well, perfect. His feet touched earth and he was off like a shot towards the water, grateful that the dark would hide the flush in his cheeks and the bulge in his pants from any guards on duty.

It had been a long day. He needed sleep. Sweet, merciful, dreamless sleep.

But first he needed a long, cold swim.

x


	2. Two

xx

He had kissed her before. Once, when they were young. Very young.

Well, she had kissed him, to be precise. But the Princess had probably been too young at the time for her to remember now, anyways.

But Hak remembered, despite having spent most of his early adolescence trying to forget. Yona had been six at the time- a time in which true love might be around any corner, under any pebble, hidden in the brambles of any tree, and the princess always ended up with the knight in shining armor.

For Hak, a strapping boy of nearly-nine-years-old, it was a time when Cooties was a very real and dangerous epidemic, one in which he found himself constantly at risk of catching.

Why couldn't the Princess ever seem to leave him alone? Didn't she know that thumb-warring (he always let her win, of course) and sleeve-tugging were high-risk behavior?

Obviously not, or she wouldn't be dragging him up the stairs to the highest watchtower now, either blissfully oblivious or intentionally ignorant of his protestations. "This will be so much fun, Hak! You can be the prince and I'll be the princess, and we can play that I've been locked away in my tower and you have to come rescue me!" She turned to him as they reached the top, panting but proud as she gestured to the grand view of the surrounding forest and distant mountaintops that greeted them. "It's the perfect place, see? Doesn't it feel like we're in a fairytale?"

Hak, for his part, barely spared the trees and mountains a glance before attempting to coerce the Princess back down the stairs. "Yona! Listen to me, will you? We shouldn't be up here. What if your dad finds out?"

"Father won't be back from Sei for days." she flashed a charming, oh-so-innocent smile.

The boy grimaced. "Your mother then."

"Mother? She's so busy attending meetings in his absence, I think she'd hardly notice if we ran away!" Her eyes lit up. "Hak, we should run away! Now might be our only chance to explore outside the Palace walls! Oh, it will be so exciting, how do you think we should sneak out?" She raced over to the tower's edge and leaned over, measuring the distance to the ground. "We could climb down from here if we had some rope…"

" _Yona!_ " Hak hurried over to her, jerking her away from the precipice. "Are you crazy? Get away from there!"

She pouted. "Oh, c'mon Hak, it's not that far, really! How do you expect to have an adventure without a little danger?" She stepped out of Hak's grasp and made a move towards the edge again, complaining to herself, "If only my stupid hair were longer… then it would be just like Rapunzel…"

Hak was becoming Very. Exasperated. Didn't she realize every touch he had to endure whilst saving her only made the probability of catching her cooties skyrocket? How could she be so selfish? Drawing her back from her teetering position yet again (really, she was an accidental suicide just waiting to happen), he hissed, "Rapunzel? What are you even- you know what, nevermind that, no. No one's going anywhere, no one's climbing down any walls, no one's having any adventures. We're staying right here."

Expecting her to throw a fit over his laying-down-the-law, he was surprised to say the least when her face split into an enormous grin and she threw her arms around him in joy. "Really, we can stay?! You won't regret it, it will be so much fun," she pushed away from him just as whiplash fast as she had engulfed him, rambling on to herself once again, "now we just have to find something we can use for crowns… those arrows maybe? But we have nothing to fashion them together with… oh well, a crown made of arrows is a bit too Brothers Grimm for my tastes anyway…"

Still a bit shell-shocked from the complete intrusion of his personal space (and the compromisation of his immune system, no doubt), Hak slowly pushed a hand back through his hair, vexed but resigned. He sighed. "The Old Man will kill me if something happens to you." An inward shudder accompanied the thought of Gramps' wrath if he ever found out Hak had let the Princess so near to the Palace walls- or to the weapons the tower sheltered, for that matter, a fortitude of hidden crossbows stationed around the circumference of the turret.

She called out to him from across the way, searching through an old chest for jewels or crowns but appearing to find nothing besides armor and weapons of various shapes and sizes. "Nothing's going to happen, Hak! Besides, how will he ever know? This watchtower hasn't been used for years, right? There's no one up here but us."

That much was true. There wasn't a soul in sight but the two of them- not even a whisper of human activity on the wind, just the gentle rustling of leaves and the sweet sound of songbirds chirping in the distance. Unsure of what to do besides cater to the pushy princess' whims, he finally allowed himself to admire the world below, stretching for miles into the distance. It really was quite a view. He could almost convince himself that he could see home from here, though Fuuga was tucked away behind the mountain spires, hidden from the rest of the world. For a moment he imagined he was back at the Wind Tribe, sparring with Han-Dae or napping in the shade of his favorite Oak tree. Free from stuffy palace living. Free from forbidden towers and nonsensical rules. Free from babysitting duty.

A few more days, he reminded himself. A few more days and the King would return and the Generals would be able to head back to their Tribes. A few more days and this lunatic Princess would be out of his hair.

Yona looked up so suddenly, Hak worried for a second he had said that last part out loud. "What's wrong? Don't you want to play? You can be the princess, if you want! I'll be the one to rescue you!"

He spluttered. "I don't want to be the princess!"

"Well then you _have_ to be the prince." She got to her feet and, dusting herself off, continued, "We don't need crowns. It's fine. We can just pretend."

"Why are you pretending to be a princess in the first place? You don't need to pretend, Yona. You _are_ a princess."

She afforded him a sharp glare, which quickly turned into a whiny frown. "Not a proper one," she muttered to herself, crossing her arms and scuffing the ground with one foot. "Not with pretty hair like Aurora and Rapunzel… not with a _prince_ …"

Hak rolled his eyes. "Make Su Won be the prince."

Yona, young, pre-unrequited-love-phase Yona, looked at him like he was crazy. "Su Won can't be the prince! His hair is too long- it's like a girl's! Besides, he can't play right now. He went with Uncle Yu-Hon into town, remember?"

"Fine, Min-Soo then."

"Min-Soo!" she sounded appalled. "Min-Soo can't be the prince, he's like my little brother! That's _gross_."

"Well I'm like a big brother, aren't I?"

"No you're _not_. You don't live at the Palace like Min-Soo does. I never see you!"

He dropped his head into his hands, feeling a headache coming on. "That's a weird thing to say because I would say I see far too much of you."

She ignored him, brashly stepping forward to tug insistently on his sleeve. "You're the only one that can be the prince, Hak! It has to be you!"

" _Why?_ Do you _like_ me or something?" Oh God. He really was catching her cooties! He was starting to sound just as whiny and annoying as her!

Well, that got her to let go of his sleeve, at least. "What?" she looked… nervous? Horrified? Stunned? Confused? He couldn't tell. He couldn't care less, though, really. "No! How could you say that? You're mean and not cute at all!"

Another eye roll. "Well if you don't like me, why does it have to be me then?"

Confused. Now she definitely looked confused. "Why? Because… well, because…" He almost felt bad, watching her wacky little six-year-old brain try to compute some valid, semi-sane reasoning.

Almost.

Until her eyes lit up in triumph and a checkmate smirk slid across her face. "Because _I_ am a princess, like you said before, Hak. A real one. And _I_ said so."

Game over. RIP, Hak of the Wind Tribe, victim of Process of Elimination. He could see the words on his gravestone now.

No. Not today.

"Look, Princess. I'll be anything. Anything you want."

"I want you to be the-"

"Just not a princess. And not a prince."

"Hak-"

"No."

" _Please-_ "

" _No._ "

She glared a supreme death glare at him. "You can't say no to me! I could throw you over the tower wall right now for your treasonous behavior!"

He put his hands behind his head, unaffected, and smiled confidently. "Yeah? I'd like to see you try."

 _Oof._ The crazy girl took seemed to take his words as a challenge, because next thing Hak knew he was on the ground with a painful thud, backed into the wall of the turret, Yona basically on top of him, fists flying, screaming a bloody murder of a battle cry.

"For God's sa- Yona, what the hell?! Get off of me! Are you insane?!" Without the element of surprise on her side she was no match for him, and he easily caught both of her hands and held them still with an iron grip. "That's it. We're going down. And we're taking the _stairs._ I'll carry you if I have to."

"Wait! Wait, Hak! Just…" Scrambling to salvage her fairytale plans from his party-pooping ultimatum, she blanched, panicked. "Just give me a minute…"

He huffed, and tried not to squirm underneath her weight. His hands were getting clammy… he wanted her off of him. Now. "Princess... "

That's when it came to her.

She thanked her royal lessons for teaching her the great art of the Compromise, and opted for her best damsel in distress look to help seal the deal.

"Okay, okay. You don't have to be the prince. Anything I want, you said, right? Well… how about… how about… you be…" she seemed to ponder for maybe a nanosecond, then looked him straight in the eye, "a frog."

He _really_ didn't like the glint in her eye, but… "a frog?" It seemed harmless enough. Stupid, but harmless. "Sure. Whatever. Can you get off me now?"

He _really_ didn't like the mischief in her smile. "And I'm still the princess, right?"

"Obviously."

It was barely a kiss. It hardly even qualified as a peck. Really, it was over before Hak even realized it had happened.

This time, it really was game over, and Yona knew it, if her triumphant grin was any indication. "Did you know," she began casually, rolling off of Hak, smoothing her skirt, and attempt to mat her untamable mane down into a style a bit more fitting for a _proper_ princess, "that when a princess kisses a frog, he turns into a prince?"

Hak hadn't known that, but at the time he was far too flabbergasted to be skeptical, to cleverly insist she check her facts.

"So," she continued, completely ignorant to the dumbfounded look on the older boy's face, "which scenario would you like to play first? We could do lose a shoe, or climb up the tower's side, or wake me from my slumber- actually, I like lose a shoe, I think. Can we start with lose a shoe?"

The poor boy could only nod dumbly in compliance. Oh God. Mentally, he updated the inscription on his gravestone. RIP, Hak of the Wind Tribe, victim of Crazy Redhead. And Cooties.

Xx

A/N: There are a lot of parallels between this chapter and the first one, I think, if you're looking hard. I like that. In my mind, the memory of this little affair wormed it's way into Hak's subconscious and started fueling his horny sex dreams ^_^ Hello, puberty!

Anyways, thank you for reading, reviewing, following, favoriting! Every single notification I receive from Fanfiction means so much to me!

Much love,

Rosie

xxxxxx


	3. Three

xxx

He stopped by her chamber at her request, even though the few precious early hours of the morning were the only chance he'd have to sleep before he'd have to be up at the crack of dawn to tend to her all the following day. Still, he felt a bit more awake as he knocked on the door and it swung open on creaky hinges, revealing the Princess, peering up at him blearily, on the other side. "I haven't been able to sleep."

"Ah. Hungry again?" He leaned one hand on the doorframe and stuck the other in his pocket as he brought his face close to hers, towering over her, a playful smirk on his lips. "What'll it be this time, Princess? Chocolate cake? Roasted deer? Cockroach souffle? I always find roaches to be more delicious at midnight, myself, don't you agree?"

"No… not tonight, Hak."

"Oh? Has the Princess finally realized that sneaking into the Palace kitchens to eat food after everyone has gone to sleep is beneath her?"

She didn't rise to the bait, much to his disappointment and bewilderment. She only turned and moved into the room, crossing the space to peer out the window on the wall opposite at the star-filled April sky.

"Tomorrow is my birthday."

Hak wasn't sure if she was speaking to him or herself, so he adopted her pensive tone as he shifted his weight to lean fully against the doorframe, one eye on the hallway and the other on her silhouette. "Tomorrow is already today."

"But it's not my birthday yet. Not really. Not until I fall asleep."

He didn't know if she was presenting him with a problem, but after a few beats of silence, he ventured a solution nonetheless. "Then sleep."

"I can't. When I wake up I'll be a woman."

He snorted. "If you say so."

She spun around to glare at him. "I will! I'll be sixteen."

He raised an eyebrow, glad to have finally managed to get a rise out of her. "You'll be a day older than you are today. Is that the difference between a girl and a woman? Twenty-four hours?"

"No!"

"I would say experience is what makes a girl into a woman, wouldn't you?"

"I know that!" whiplash-quick she flounced away from the window and sprang up on the bed, snatching a pillow to chuck at her guard. Hak didn't bother dodging, as the feather-filled sack barely made it ten feet away from her, much less to the doorway, without even accounting for her terrible aim. His poorly concealed laughter aggravated her further and she let out a frustrated, "ugh!" and tugged at her hair with both hands rather aggressively, thoroughly distraught, before flopping backwards onto the mattress and taking some deep breaths. Hak watched passively from his spot, not quite in the room, not quite outside of it, and counted. One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

"I know that," she whispered, eyes trained on the ceiling. "I know there's so much I haven't experienced. People will smile at me tomorrow at the party and tell me I'm no longer a girl, that I've become a beautiful young lady… but they'll be lying."

Hak remained silent, merely watching her in lieu of a reply, waiting for her to continue. The Princess shivered, but didn't move beyond the involuntary reaction. Didn't wrap her arms around herself. Didn't burrow under the covers. She just laid there, as if in a trance. "Could you close the door?"

Normally, Hak would have grumbled at such a request, reluctantly obeying but not without a remark such as, "I know your head's funny, Princess, but your legs work perfectly fine." But he felt as though the Princess was fragile right now, somehow. Like perhaps if he pushed back too hard at her, she would break. So he turned and tugged the door shut as gently as he could without a word, leaning back against it as it clicked shut. Waiting. Still waiting.

The room grew much darker suddenly cut off from the candlelit corridor, the thin shafts of moonlight peeking through the window the only illuminator of the Princess' prone form on the bed. Hak quickly pushed away any traitorous thoughts of a certain dream he'd had hardly a week before.

It was a dream, and nothing more.

It would never be anything more.

Her next words were all the reminder he needed of that fact. Her voice quivered, tentative. Vulnerable, as if she were exposing herself, completely proffering up the unprotected depths of her heart. "I just want Su-Won to see me as a woman…" She couldn't hide the small break in her voice when she spoke her cousin's name, but the darkness managed to hide her tears, if she shed any.

The silence that followed was excruciating. Hak knew he should say something, anything, or go to her, sit by her side, hold her hand, but he couldn't seem to move. All of his muscles, frozen in place, his vocal chords included, constricted painfully tight. No matter. The right words eluded him anyway.

Every second that ticked by he grew more and more aware of his own failure. What was wrong with him? Why wasn't he able to put his feelings aside? Isn't this what he was here to do? To protect the Princess, protect her heart? To push her along the path to happiness? To lead her towards Su-Won, towards the future he'd always wanted for her- for him- for _them_ , together? A future where he could be by their sides?

He needed to be by her side. She was crying. Was she crying? He couldn't tell. All he could see in the darkness were the long lashes of her closed eyes, her slim fingers buried into a small portion of her silk comforter, and her crimson hair, fanned out around her like a halo. There was no sound of sniffling in the air, only the stilted rhythm of shallow breaths growing deeper, heavier… more controlled? Was she sleeping? He needed to check on her. He needed to go to her side.

He was going, he was going to move now… now… _now_.

Too late.

She sat up suddenly, but surely, seeming to be much more possessed, somehow more present than she had been in the moments before. A stray shaft of moonlight hit her as she raised her head and rolled her shoulders slowly back, perfectly spotlighting the contours of her breathtaking, heartbreaking smile. "At any rate, if I want something to happen, I should do something about it, right Hak? Here I am being faint-hearted again. Sorry. I must really be annoying you."

The words tumbled out of him as he found his voice again, like water bursting from behind a broken dam. "Princess. You are beautiful. He- _Su-Won_ would have to be blind not to see you as such."

His heart began pounding before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, and as soon as he'd finished speaking them, he regretted it. _What had he just said? What was he thinking?_

But the Princess just laughed, a sweet, melancholy tinkle, and looked down at her hands. "That's a nice thing to say, Hak. Are you awake? Or did you drift off while I was feeling sorry for myself and now you're sleeptalking?"

"I am awake, Princess."

She smiled again, more softly.

"And I mean it."

The smile faded away.

"You take your job too seriously…" before he could protest, she forged ahead, violet eyes meeting blue, "but I'm glad you do. That's why I called you here, after all. Here, sit down." She patted the vacant spot on the bed beside her.

"I'm fine standing."

"Sit." Wary to overstep any boundaries, but even more wary to disobey the sharp-tongued order, Hak settled himself at the foot of the bed, as much distance between himself and the girl as possible.

"Princess, this isn't appropriate…"

"What do you mean? It's just you. It's fine."

"..."

"Come closer. I just want to talk to you."

"She grew impatient at his continued reluctance, and so opted to get up and forcibly tug him over to her. When she found it impossible to move the mountain of muscle that was the Lightning Beast even an inch, she let out an exasperated little huff and dropped down next to him so they were side-by-side, mirroring his position, hands leaned behind her on the mattress, feet hanging over the edge. She craned her neck to look up at him. "Is this alright?" she asked with no little hint of annoyance.

Hak just tightened his jaw and kept his gaze trained straight ahead. Now that they were both facing away from the window he really couldn't see anything, but rather than make things easier for him it only made him more aware of her in other ways. The steady sound of her breathing. The faint smell of her exotic perfume. The warmth of her leg against his as she shifted to get comfortable.

"Hak…"

Her words. Focus on her words.

"You're eighteen now, ne? You're so grown up now."

When he still kept his silence, she fumbled around for one his hands, pressing her own flat against it, holding it up close to his face to show him. The difference in size was massive, his palm dwarfing hers. "So much bigger than me."

"Princess…" a warning. She pulled her hand away, but pressed on, undeterred.

"You must have been with girls, right? Even if you've never mentioned any. There must have been at least one girl who's taken an interest in you at some point, right? Or… a girl that you've loved?"

 _What...?_ "Why are you asking this?"

 _There must have been at least one girl._ There had been admirers. Admirers in the plural, more than just one, many of them, of course there had. He was a General, after all. He was renowned throughout the kingdom. The whispers followed him in the streets wherever he went, as did the admirers, young and old, some looking for power, some looking to brag to their friends, some looking at, well, his muscles most likely. There had been offers. He had never taken them. Unwelcome advances. He had never failed to evade them.

In the back of his mind, he was aware that some small part of him had wondered- _wished_ \- that the Princess had perhaps noticed, had possibly overheard the serving girls tittering away about him as they set up for the mid-day meal. Or somehow caught wind of the women quietly singing their praises for him to each other whenever he dragged her with him to the arena so he could train.

But of course she hadn't. He was the one in her peripheral vision, not at the center of it. It wasn't her fault. She hadn't been trained to notice much of anything about her peripheral, and she never would be. She would never need to be. That was what she had a guard for.

She was insistent, relentless. "You've experienced so much more than me, Hak. You've held weapons, you've won battles, you've been outside the castle walls… I know you've done this too. You must have."

This conversation was headed in a dangerous direction. Hak's eyes narrowed with trepidation. "Done what?"

He felt rather than heard her deep intake of breath, felt her freeze beside him and the air grow heavier before she released it with a trembling sigh. He felt rather than saw her tilt her head to peer up at him, felt her breath steam on his cheek, felt her hand rise up to cup the other side of his face, her fingerprints searing into his skin, her nose brushing his as she brought his face close- _so close too close_ \- to his own. He felt rather than heard the next words she breathed onto his lips, felt them because he couldn't hear anything over his own thundering heartbeat, over the riotous sound of chaos engulfing him as the world as he'd known it was thrown into deafening disorder. "Done this…"

This wasn't right. This wasn't real- it was another dream, a hallucination, a trick, a test, or he was misunderstanding the situation, he was- it wasn't what he thought, it was, it was-

It was the feeling of her lips brushing against his, just once, so faint he wasn't sure if he had imagined it in his uncontrollable panic, his unfathomable confusion and _what was going on-_

"Hak… hold still, please…"

Was he imagining those whispered words too? Was he imagining the hand she raised to cup his other cheek, cementing his head in place as she slowly leaned in to bring their faces close- _too close_ \- again? Was he imagining the faint glimmers of violet slowly shuttering shut as she, as she-

" _What are you doing_?"

He bolted from the bed so fast he really might have been made of lightning, fumbling blindly for something, anything to support him before finding the cool stone of the wall and sliding down it in uncontainable shock. He was shaking. He couldn't stop shaking, couldn't process, couldn't understand, couldn't compute-

What was going on?

"Hak-"

"Are you sick?" That was the only solution. "Are you feverish? You aren't thinking clearly, you're behaving-"

"I am not sick. I'm thinking perfectly clearly, Hak, I'm in control of my actions."

"You're tired. You're not yourself, you need to rest-"

"I do not need to rest, and I am myself. Hak, listen to me for a moment, please."

No. He stood and made for the doorway, not daring to glance at her as he passed. "I need to go. I'll fetch you more comfortable sheets, I'll call Min-Soo in to check your temperature, he can fluff your pillows, I'll get you warm tea from the-"

"I don't need tea! I don't need fluffed pillows, Hak, listen to me! Please, let me explain."

Explain. "Fine. Yes, explain." Balling his hands into fists managed to stop them from shaking. He crossed his arms. Yes, this was good, this was fine, this was manageable. He was stock-still, glaring down at her, the unyielding chief of an interrogation. He was calm. Cold. He was in control. "Explain," he repeated.

She licked her lips, nervous. "I need you…" she broke off, took an unsteady breath, and tried again. "I need you to kiss me."

He was calm. He was in control. "Why?"

"It's important, please-"

"Why?"

"I- I need you to, I need your help-"

"Why?"

She seemed unsure of how to respond. He didn't blame her. Even he wasn't sure of what he was asking anymore.

"Because… I'm asking you to. I'm asking you, Hak. Please kiss me."

He was calm. He was in control. "Princess, I- no. It's not my place-" though he was trying to remain level-headed, he could hear his cold demeanor cracking, his voice rising with every word, just as he could feel the heat rise to his cheeks, to the back of his neck.

"Hak, please! If I see Su-Won tomorrow- _when_ I see Su-Won tomorrow- I want to show him. I want him to see that I've become a woman. I want to _show_ him, but he's so much more experienced than me. He's- he's had proposals of marriage, you heard him-"

"Yeah, and so have you apparently!" His rage was making him forget himself, who he was, making him fling words like weapons at the Princess, dredging up that day in the training arena with a vengeance.

"Yes, Hak, I lied! Okay? I panicked and I lied. Because I didn't want Su-Won to see me as a child, don't you understand? But this way, if I- if I kiss him tomorrow he won't see me that way, because he'll see that I've done it before and-"

" _When_ will you have done it before?"

"Right now, Hak! With you."

"Like hell you will have!"

"Calm down! It's just practice! Don't you see? And then I won't have to lie, and I- I'll be a woman and-"

"No. Absolutely not."

" _Please_ , Hak."

"I'm leaving."

" _No!"_

The desperation in her words made him pause, but was not enough to make him turn back around. He stood with his back to her, fists clenched, trying and failing to even out his ragged breaths. He really was about to leave before he betrayed his post and started yelling at her again when a soft sniffle had him whirling back around.

"Stay, please. Please help me, I'm begging you-"

Now she was crying. He stood rooted to the spot, frozen yet again, unwilling to go near her but unable to look away as two tears rolled gently down her right cheek and one more down her left. She was the very picture of purity, so honest, so open, so transparent. No airs. No facades. Just the truth of the contents of her heart hanging in the air between them, laid bare for Hak to see.

She wiped the drops away with the back of her hand and took a shuddering, composing breath.

When he spoke again, his voice was once more controlled, quiet, though still simmering with rage and unparalleled disbelief. "How could you ask a _servant_ to defile you in such-"

"You're not a servant. You're my friend. I trust you."

"Trust me with your life, Princess, not with-"

"And… I'm not asking. It's an order."

"Then I..." he stopped himself before he could finish the sentence. _Then I quit._

What was he saying? He'd made a promise. He couldn't back out now, couldn't back out ever, couldn't abandon her to someone else's care. A shadow passed over his face as he thought about how another guard might have reacted in this situation. No way in hell would he subject the Princess to that. This was his job. It had to be him.

' _It's just you. It's fine.'_

That was what she'd said, wasn't it?

' _It's just you.'_

Just… him. Just her guard. Just a friend.

Just an order.

He was proud of the flat, emotionless tone he managed to adopt as he uttered his treasonous assent. Proud that it betrayed none of the turmoil raging inside his mind and his heart. "It is not my place to question orders. If the Princess wishes for me to… to do this for her, then I will comply."

"Thank you." A sniffle. She was crying again.

This time there was no hesitation, no rigid helplessness, no loss for what to do. He crossed to her in two strides, took her face in his hands and wiped her tears away with the pads of his thumbs. "It's alright, Princess. Don't cry."

"I'm sorry, Hak." the tears wouldn't stop falling. He had to continuously circle his thumbs over both cheeks to catch them all. "Don't hate me. Please don't hate me."

Her eyes were so mournful, so full of repentance and hopelessness and regret that he couldn't bear to look at them any longer. He brought her head into his chest and rested his own on top of hers, wrapping his arms around her, feeling her tears soak through his shirt. "Shh," he murmured into the dark, eyes on the distant moon, the faraway stars. "I don't hate you. I could never."

After a small eternity- or perhaps it was merely a minute, he couldn't be sure- the crying subsided. She took a small step back, though not far enough to be out of his embrace, and looked up at him, offering a tentative smile. "Okay. I'm ready."

He wasn't. He wasn't, but perhaps he would never be, and she was waiting, and a servant should never leave their master waiting, and here he was…

"Okay." He didn't know what to do. There was nothing else to say. He couldn't delay it any longer.

But he wasn't ready...

His pulse rose as he brought his lips to her forehead and kissed her. His eyes widened imperceptibly as a small blush appeared on her cheeks.

"I'm sorry. I probably won't be as good at it as the girls you've had before…"

Of course. She was embarrassed. _All the girls you've had before…_ there had been no girls before. He was just as lost and embarrassed as she was. But how could he tell her that now, when she had worked up her courage? When she was counting on him?

"I'll do my best." she smiled softly.

 _We'll learn together,_ he thought to himself. She would learn… well, she would learn what she wanted so desperately to learn, and he would learn how to lock his feelings away deep inside of his heart once and for all. He would learn how to distance his emotions from his post, how to disentangle his orders from his desires.

Her eyes closed.

There was nothing else to say. He brought his lips to hers.

He felt nothing. He was just following orders. He most certainly did not feel like his heart was about to explode in his chest.

The kiss was shy, at first, and chaste, and if it was clumsy, neither of them knew enough to know any better.

As the girl grew more confident, she began to run her tongue over his lips, asking- _commanding_ entry. He obeyed and led her to the bed, mouth never leaving hers, intending to sit on the edge, but she pulled him on to the mattress as they reached it, curling up into each other on top of the covers.

This was everything he'd ever wanted. Everything he'd ever dreamed about. Hell, he had _literally_ dreamed about it, so why…

Why did he feel… so...

sad?

This was nothing like his dream. Sure, the setting, the moon, even the tears were the same, but the atmosphere was all wrong, transforming the scene into some twisted parody. He knew she wouldn't be sighing his name into the silence. The only name on her mind tonight was Su-Won's.

Was it over yet?

He broke away, and she gasped for air. Between ragged breaths, he panted, "Princess… when you want me to stop... I'll stop."

She nodded her understanding, "I'll tell you," then kissed him again.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, a small part of Hak was relieved she had not stopped him there. This was wrong. It was wrong, everything about it was wrong, but… this was his one chance. When it ended… it would be over. It would never come again.

Though he told himself with every movement of her lips that this was fine, he was fine, he was following orders, he felt nothing, somewhere in the back of his mind, a small part of him knew the truth.

The truth was, he still had a lot of learning to do.

He kissed her until the moonlight gave way to the early stirrings of the sun.

xxx

He'd noticed it a week ago, as soon as Su-Won had arrived. It had been jarringly obvious the second he'd delivered the news. The mere mention of his arrival, the mere knowledge that he was in the Castle had somehow made the Princess transform, somehow made her become _more._

More shallow. More short-tempered. More high maintenance, self-conscious, self-absorbed.

More passionate. More bright. More vibrant. More intense. More alive.

When she woke up the following morning (er, well, the following afternoon), it was as if the _more-ness_ had somehow increased tenfold.

She was up and out of bed before he'd even noticed she was stirring (an impressive feat considering he was her bodyguard, even if he was exhausted), bounding over to the window to let the afternoon breeze pour in. She hummed a bit underneath her breath as she waltzed around the room, pausing to stretch out this muscle or that. Her eyes sparkled brighter than any of the orgy of jewels scattered all over her vanity. "Morning Hak," she sang as she danced over to his signature spot in the doorway, brushing past him briefly to stick her head into the hallway, looking both ways as if to see if anyone was coming.

"Morning, Princess."

She turned to glare at him rapid-fire before faking a small cough. "Ahem."

He stared back blankly. "What?"

"Do you know what day it is?"

"It's, uh, Wednesday, I believe, Princess. The 6th, right? Or is it the 7th?"

Her Royal Highness was royally unamused. "It's April 7th, Hak and it's my birthday, as I know you're aware." she moved to the vanity, sitting down in front of the mirror and uttering a low _tsk_ as she took note of her sleep-rumpled reflection. "It wouldn't hurt you to be a little more charming every once in a while, you know."

"I could say the same to you."

"Why, you- !" Hak effortlessly caught the bejeweled haircomb that came flying at him with one hand and turned it over in his hands, examining it, before replying with a _tch_ of his own. "Temper tantrums and throwing toys- how old are you turning today, Princess? Five?"

She huffed and stuck her tongue out at him, which Hak was about to point out only furthered his point, when her childish expression gave way to a sigh of supreme contentment. She turned to look in the mirror again, twirling a strand of her hair around on one finger contemplatively. "Not five…" she said, "sixteen."

She looked at him once more, "sixteen, can you believe it?" and her accompanying smile literally stole Hak's breath away.

Only for a second, but it was enough to make his eyes widen and his heart skip a beat. It was a smile that went beyond happy, beyond satisfied. It was luminous. Overjoyed. It was glorious. He tried not to gulp. "Princess, you look… different."

She grinned again. He looked away. "Do I look like a woman?"

"Could be. Or maybe it's just that your hair is so messy. "

"Well, you look terrible!"

He knew that much was true. Even from the blurry glimpse of himself he could manage from the doorway he could make out the bags under his eyes, the droop in his posture, the every-which-way-edness of his hair.

 _Yeah, well I didn't get a lot of sleep last night._ Any, actually. None. "I'm fine."

The girl in the mirror pouted. "You're right. It's so messy!" she waved him over. "My comb! Bring it back!" Rolling his eyes and not bothering to chide her for throwing it at him in the first place, he set it down next to her just as Min-Soo appeared in the doorway.

Hak waved at him in the mirror. "Yo."

The young boy smiled warmly back. "Hey, you two. I'm here to help you get ready, Princess. Your ladies should be in soon to help you dress as well."

Seizing this brief opportunity for respite from the Princess' exhausting presence, Hak flashed a peace sign on his way out. "Great. I'm going to make my rounds, shouldn't be more than an hour. Princess, stay here while I'm gone. Min-Soo, there's a man stationed around the corner should you need anything. Thanks."

"No problem, Lightning Beast. Now, Princess, where should we start?"

"My hair! Do something about my hair!"

He exited without a glance back.

xxx

She hadn't said a word about the previous night. She hadn't acted particularly strange. In fact, she had offered no indication that the previous night had happened at all. Hak might have chalked it up to another dream, if he had actually gotten any sleep in the past thirty-six hours.

It just wasn't on her mind, was all. Of course it wasn't. Why would it be? That was just practice, after all. Today, if all went well with Su-Won… today she would experience the real thing.

The General's trip around palace grounds was scenic, to say the least. All around him, sakura trees rustled in the ambling spring breeze, clouds rolled lazily across the sky, servants rushed around, chattering and laughing to one another as they put the finishing touches on their preparations for the night's celebration.

The peaceful atmosphere was unfailingly relaxing. Good for musing. It was as if the wind whisked all frustrations away.

' _Do I look like a woman?'_ Maybe last night had made a difference. She certainly seemed different, as if someone had turned on a switch inside of her, or as if she were one of the buds on the cherry trees, finally starting to blossom.

Or maybe it had nothing to do with last night. Nothing to do with the past, and everything to do with the future. Indeed, for the Princess, things did seem bright. Hak would bet his spear that her and Su-Won would be married by the years' end. He could see them now, standing across from each other on that cobblestone bridge over there, radiating youth and love and life.

Wait a minute. He blinked once. Twice. Then another time, just for good measure. That really was them, standing there over the water, beaming at each other. Su-Won seemed to have just given the Princess a gift, but he was too far away to make out much beyond the sparkle of gemstones… something bedazzled, then. (Just what she needed, he thought dryly.) A piece of jewelry, perhaps? Another haircomb she could turn into a flying missile? He wasn't trying to be particularly sneaky as he made his way over to them, but when he reached them, planting himself between the two they jumped apart as if he had just magically appeared there. Or as if they had been doing something forbidden, or had been having a private moment.

He kind of wanted to smack them both.

"His Majesty is searching for you, your Highness."

Yona stamped her foot childishly. "Ugh, I bet he's drunk!" She ran off, but not before Hak caught a glimpse of the scarlet blush adorning both of her cheeks.

He smirked at his best friend. "Take care of her, Lord Su-Won," then sauntered away to catch up with the Princess before the the blonde man could protest. Where had she gone off to now? She couldn't have gotten far. Still, she had probably already managed to get into trouble on her own.

xxx

"I told you to stay in your room earlier, you know," he grumbled later that night as he sat outside her massive walk-in closet, watching her hold up dress after dress to her body in front of the full-length mirror before tossing them to the side. Between each garment she would take a minute or two to just stand there, looking at herself, sliding her fingers along the hair she so vehemently detested more gently than he had ever thought her capable of. A shiny new hairpin sparkled from atop the crimson tousles.

"Su-Won invited me for a walk," she said, as if it were all the explanation she needed. Maybe it was.

"Are you almost done? All these dresses look the same. And you've been dressed for hours anyway, why second-guess all the servants' hard work now?"

"I'm not second-guessing them! I know they worked hard! They did a lovely job…" she trailed off, eyeing herself up and down. "It's just… that was before I had the hairpin. And I'm going to see Su-Won. He's already seen me in this dress."

 _Girls._ "Who cares?"

"I do!"

"Well he doesn't, I promise you."

"Fine then," she decreed, throwing the (bajillionth) dress away a bit more forcefully than any of the previous ones. "I'm going."

"Like that? If you're going to make a love confession, you should at least brush out your hair first."

He narrowed his eyes when his smirking hypocrisy didn't lead to an antagonistic exchange, but the Princess had a far-off look in her eyes, gazing into the mirror once more. "Su-Won likes my hair…" she whispered to herself.

He stood, cracking his neck and rolling out his stiff shoulders (he'd been sitting there for three hours, by his estimates). "Alright then. I'll come with you. It's the least I can do, as your betrothed and all."

That brought her back to Earth. "You're so annoying."

He just shrugged. _Not as annoying as you._

"I'll be fine on my own."

"Relax. It's not like I'm going to be there with you. I'll wait outside."

"It's really okay."

"Princess, this is my job. It's not compromisable."

"I don't want you there, Hak."

That didn't hurt. He felt nothing. It was fine. Besides… "It's not like I want to be there either."

"Then don't come."

"Fine." He'd just order another guard to tail after her without her noticing.

"Fine."

"Princess-"

"I'm going alone."

She stormed out of the closet and into her bedroom, moving purposefully towards the doorway with single-minded stubbornness. She didn't even notice the hairpin fall out. He sighed, catching up to her in two strides, scooping up the ornament that meant so much to her on the way.

Before he knew what he was doing, he'd grabbed her hand from behind. She whirled on him impatiently, fire in her eyes. "What is it now?"

"You forgot something." He secured the pin back in her hair, tucking a few stray waves back that had fallen into her eyes. She looked like she didn't know whether to be grateful or even more annoyed. Her eyes flicked down. He was still holding on to her hand.

Finally, she offered a begrudging, "thanks."

They just stood there for a moment, unsure of what to say, violet eyes boring into blue. Her eyes churned with so many emotions: nervousness, excitement, love, lust- impatience at being stopped, and annoyance at her guard for stopping her, no doubt. Hak marveled that they didn't overflow. Well, he thought to himself, perhaps she had cried herself out last night.

And... she looked tired, too. Underneath it all.

He wasn't going to bring it up. If she wasn't dwelling on it, then neither should he. It really had been nothing more than an order, no different from all those other commands to sneak her into the kitchens, close the door, fetch her her comb.

"Hak, do you have something else to say?" she ventured a glance down the hall, foot tapping, before looking back at him.

Even though her face was contorted with a grimace of supreme proportions, she looked truly beautiful in that moment. On the verge of becoming a woman. So, so alive. "Happy birthday, Princess. You look great."

He _wasn't_ going to say anything. It was over and done with. It was in the past. And she was being a royal pain in the ass. Still, it was her birthday…

"Is that all? I don't want to miss him."

"Hope all your practice pays off." He let go of her hand. _I hope you're happy together._

She was off like a shot. She didn't look back.

xxx

That was the last thing he'd said to her before he'd discovered that the guard he'd sent to tail her had betrayed him. Before they'd discovered that Su-Won had murdered the King. Before the world had turned upside down.

As he led her from the Castle under the cloak of darkness, mind whirling, trying so madly and failing so completely to _comprehend_ , to _understand,_ to convince himself that it was all a dream, that it really had all been a dream, she couldn't seem to _stop_ looking back. But Hak kept his eyes fixed unflinchingly forward for the both of them.

He never mentioned the kiss again.

xxx

A/N: _Hakfanlover_ , _Rockin' angels_ , _Aki no Ryu_ , and _anonimous-me_ (and 'Guest', of course XD), thank you for your reviews and thanks to everyone who has faved/followed 6KC!

And thank you, whoever you are, for reading ^_^ I hope you enjoyed chapter three!

On a somewhat unrelated note, does anyone else think that _A Thousand Years_ by Christina Perri is just the absolute perfect song for Yona and Hak? The lyric "one step closer" reminds me so much of the honey scene between the two of them, when Yona asks if she's gotten a little stronger, gotten a little closer to Hak and AHHHHH IT JUST FILLS MY HEART TO THE BRIM AND BREAKS IT AT THE SAME TIME I CAN'T I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS HELP ! ! ! !11!1!hgoe

Ahem.

Anyways…

It's at the top of my phone's Yona playlist (yeah, I have a Yona playlist! I may be a tad bit too obsessed… oh well. It is my username, after all.) Just wondering if anyone else has thought that too, or has any other songs that remind them of HakYona or just Akatsuki no Yona in general! Let me know, I'm always looking to expand my Yona repertoire… :)

Much love,

Rosie

xxxxxx


	4. Four

They'd been through so much.

They'd been through so much together, all seven of them, that today felt strange, like a spontaneous, much-needed family vacation.

Shin-ah had spotted the tranquil valley from the mountain pass they'd been crossing, stopping in his tracks with a small intake of breath. Quiet as he was, no one might have noticed had Kija, who'd been walking backwards so as to give the Princess his full attention as she offered up a funny story about Yun from their early days of travel, not run smack-dab into him with an almighty " _oof_ ''.

The white dragon immediately spun around with a gasp, eyes perfectly round. "My apologies, seiryuu, are you alright?!"

His words seemed to bounce right off the blue dragon, however. In fact, it seemed he had hardly noticed being run into at all, still rooted in place, fixated on the some faraway view below, hidden to all the poor passersby with mere 20/20 vision.

"Shin-ah…?" Yona brought a cautious hand to his shoulder. "Do you see something?"

Her touch brought him out of his silent reverie. "It's… beautiful…" he turned to her, eyes misty.

Jae-ha popped up behind the blue dragon's shoulder, a sly smile on his face. "What's beautiful? Our darling Yona? I agree, she could stop any man in his tracks." He pushed past Shin-ah and took Yona's hand into his own, raising it to his lips.

Hak appeared between them like a bolt of lightning, expression innocuously deadpan, causing Yona to startle and jump apart from Jae-ha's seductive clutches. The green dragon was less than surprised. He smiled charmingly at the Lightning Beast. "Ah, Hak. Right on time."

Hak ignored him, surveying the forest below with one hand over his brow in a sun-blocking salute. "What were you looking at, Shin-ah? I don't see anything."

xxxx

That was how they'd ended up at the hidden oasis, surrounded by overwhelming beauty and tranquility, so effectively tucked away from the rest of the world and the reality of their worries that it felt as if they were inside of a dream. High, craggy cliffs surrounded them on all sides, branches of gigantic willow trees pouring over them, swaying sensually, ivy crawling through cracks in the cliffside, climbing all the way up the rocky surface as if it were reaching for the sun.

On one side of the valley nestled a small body of water, sunlight glimmering off the gentle ripples, too big to be a pond yet not quite large enough to be considered a lake, stretching from a smooth sand bank to the cliffside. The gang stood on that bank now, Zeno already delightedly splashing his feet around in the water, the other reveling in the feel of the smooth grains of sand between their toes.

To any other travelling group, the valley would be near-impossible to access, much less escape from, unless they had superhuman rockclimbing abilities or maybe a pair of wings. But the Happy Hungry Bunch wasn't any other travelling group. Who needs a pair of wings when you have a Jae-ha?

Panting heavily but only a little worse for the wear, the green dragon sunk onto his rear the second Hak hopped off of his shoulders, groaning with fatigue. "You've gained weight, Lightning Beast…"

Said boy grinned. "It's because the Princess has grown so competent with the bow. We've been well fed lately."

"Well fed indeed!" cried Zeno, kicking a spray of water at a nearby Yun playfully for emphasis. The Beautiful Genius shrieked and scampered a safe distance away from the splash zone, to chortles from Zeno and Kija.

Yona blushed at the praise. "W-well, I've had a good teacher…" she said quietly, too quietly for anyone to catch but herself.

"What was that, Yona Dear?" Jae-ha was now sprawled out in this sand on his back, hands over his eyes, shielding them from the beating-down sun.

"Nothing!" Far too chipper. Inwardly mortified, she spun around and ran towards Yun in a manner that could only be classified as fleeing.

"Yona Dear has been acting quite strange around you lately, hasn't she, Little Brother? All her blushing and stuttering and panicking… peculiar, wouldn't you say?"

Hak watched the Princess as she busied herself helping Yun pitch the tents. She didn't seem to be acting any different around the young boy than usual. "You're tired, Droopy Eyes. Go to sleep."

"Oh, I can't go to sleep now! Maybe I will once you wake up."

"What?"

"Open your eyes, Little Brother. The winds have changed."

Having had enough of Jae-ha's cryptic nonsense for one day (for forever, really), Hak moved down the beach to pester Shin-ah, who was crouched at the edge of the bank, holding Ao carefully in his palms as the little squirrel lapped at the crystal clear water.

He clapped the quietest of the dragons (his favorite, really) on the back. "Shin-ah. No one will bother us here. Surely you can take off that mask, no? You must be hot."

Ao took a break from quenching her thirst to 'pkyuuuuu!' in agreeance.

Before the poor perpetually-peer-pressured boy could respond, Zeno sloshed over, addressing the whole group. "Come on, kiddos! Let's swim!" He threw some water up into the air for emphasis, and it twinkled as it rained down around him, creating a lovely picture of youthful, beachy fun.

"All right!" Kija balled his claw into an invigorated fist, then pulled Jae-ha to his feet a bit too forcefully and accidentally flung him a good twenty feet in the air. Jae-ha, to his credit, stuck the landing, less than an arms' length away from where Yona stood, delighted and awed. .

(Zeno and Kija held up signs rating the spectacle a perfect 10. Hak, ever the tough critic, raised his to reveal a respectable 6.5. A suspiciously chibi Yun looked over, dumbfounded. "Where did those come from?")

The green dragon dusted off his (not particularly dirty) shoulder nonchalantly before extending his arm around the girl. "Come on Yona Dear, let's take a dip." She giggled in excitement and allowed him to lead her to the water's edge, but faltered as they passed by Shin-ah, who had finally caved to Hak's insistent inquiries and was removing his mask.

"Oh… I just realized, I don't have anything to swim in... so I'll just relax here! You guys have fun!"

Everyone froze. They had all forgotten that the Princess had… certain assets that needed to be taken into account. Hak coughed awkwardly. Kija grew redder than his master's hair. Jae-ha seemed positively tickled.

Luckily, Ao, completely misreading the atmosphere, issued a happy "pkyuuuuu!" and bounded over to her favorite female companion, climbing up her cloak to perch happily on her shoulder. The tension was broken.

"The Princess' modesty is of utmost importance! If the Princess will not be partaking in aquatic revelry, then neither shall I!" Kija proclaimed rather dramatically.

Shin-ah, ever the cinnamon roll, nodded complicitly. Hak, too, grunted his assent.

"No!" Yona cried, eyes wide. "Enjoy yourselves, please. Everyone deserves to have some fun. I won't allow anyone to miss out on my account."

Jae-ha, thinking he had the perfect solution to the dilemma, decided to interject, cutting off Kija's loud protests. "You deserve some fun too, Yona Darling. I'm sure none of us would mind if you elected to strip down and hop in the water…"

The spearhead that appeared at Jae-ha's throat was almost as barbed as the boy brandishing it.

"While our backs are turned, naturally."

Judging from the other boys' reddening cheeks, and Kija's brief fainting spell, the other boys would indeed have minded, but Jae-ha pretended not to see.

"That's all right, really- please, I'm serious! This is so rare, an opportunity like this, who knows when we'll get to have another holiday." She smiled sweetly and settled down in the sand. Hak planted his spear in the ground so she could lean against it. "I never get to take watch, so this will be fun for me to keep an eye on you."

There was only the briefest of hesitations as all the men exchanged glances.

"Well if the Little Miss insists…" Without further ado, Zeno stripped down to his underwear in one fluid motion with impressive flare, tossing his overclothes to the side and jumping into the water with a rather remarkable backflip.

(Jae-ha, Hak and Kija held up signs: 8, 7.6, and a generous 9.8, respectively. Chibi Yun once again looked on, deadpan. "Seriously where are you getting these signs.")

Yun shook his head and made to sit next to the red-haired girl. "I'll stay with you, Yona. I much prefer intellectual conversation to… 'aquatic revelry'." This was accompanied by air quotes and a very diva-esque hair flip.

He looked around their newfound hideaway with a happy sort of wonder. "So how do you think a valley like this formed? It's kind of incredible, a sanctuary like this, out here in the middle of nowhere…" When he failed to receive any sort of reply Yun turned to his companion, only to find her staring slack-jawed at a certain raven-haired someone as he shucked his overcoat and robes, revealing him in all his muscle-hardened glory.

"Hello? Earth to Yona?" he waved a hand in front of her face.

"Huh? Oh! Um… what? Yes!" At Yun's _are-you-kidding-me_ look she tried again. "I mean- no…? Er, sorry, could you repeat the question?" She chuckled nervously, turning away abruptly to hide her rapidly coloring cheeks, but not quite far enough to hide from Yun the peeks she continued to surreptitiously take at the Lightning Beast.

The Beautiful Genius lifted his gaze to the heavens.

Intellectual conversation, indeed.

xxxx

The hardest part of all the training he'd endured before taking up the position of the Princess' personal guard full-time was learning to become a light sleeper.

As a boy he'd spent most of his days chasing his next nap, and nothing short of the old man's menacing (read: annoying) threats and prying prods could wake him once he'd nestled into a quiet corner or a shady glen and let his consciousness slip away.

That had all changed that fateful day four years ago, when Hak- naive, noble, helplessly impulsive Hak- had had to go and stick his spear in somebody else's business; he'd traded hours of blissful, easy sleep every day for hours of trying _not_ to fell asleep every day as his china-doll charge rambled on and on about _kimono_ this and _Su Won_ that in one fell swoop. But really, what hadn't changed that day?

Keeping the Princess hostile had been necessary for maintaining top-notch performance in his post (as well as maintaining his sanity). Finding new ways to antagonize her had been the only thing that proved capable of keeping him alert in the (angsty, regret-filled, mindnumbingly dull) early days, and so the dynamic between them had been cemented- dynamic being the most fitting of words, as one immature prod from either of them had the other combusting like an explosive in a rage really not quite appropriate for people of their age and prestige.

When he hadn't been able to distract himself with any silly silver-tongued tangos, he'd kept his eyes open in other, equally unhealthy ways. He'd spent countless hours stewing over the degrading nature of his post, of having to drop everything at a moment's notice to obey the Princess' beck and call.

It had been hard to swallow when he'd realized her beck and call wasn't limited to just office hours, to say the least.

How many times had he been roused from bed to check on the Princess? At first, it had been Mun-Dok popping in every night, shaking him awake none-too-gently at least twice a night to remind his favorite grandson (read: favorite victim) to check on the slumbering girl down the hall, despite the fact that the guards outside her door were more than competent (and, Hak had suspected, somewhat insulted by the young General's nightly drop-ins, incorrectly inferencing they were due to how little faith the Wind Tribe boy had in the Palace's men).

Then, perhaps a week into his sentence (he was also learning not to think of it that way), after Yona had outgrown the restrained, awkward unease that had naturally first accompanied the transition from childhood friends to master and servant, she'd realized that calling upon Hak during the late hours of the night was just another way to torture him, to exact revenge on him for whatever crude comment he'd made in her direction that day.

At least, that's how Hak viewed the unwelcome summons. But maybe she was just that needy.

And then, to his horror, he'd found himself rising on his _own_ in the middle of the night, interrupting his dreams- even the really good ones!- to pad down the hall and peek his head into the Princess' chambers whenever he didn't receive a call. _Habit,_ he told himself each night as he found the Princess unharmed without fail, so small in her King-sized canopy bed, peacefully tucked away under her covers, snoring softly into oblivion. It was habit, that sigh of relief, habit and nothing more.

It was _habit_ doing funny things to his chest.

Nothing but a new habit, that funny feeling, that recent development- nonetheless, one he needed to break.

That was aside the point. For better or worse, he'd learned to worry, and becoming a light-sleeper had been in the fine print when he'd traded his aspirations of becoming a World-Class Warrior for the far more practical, far more all-consuming position of World-Class Worrier.

He would never admit it out loud, never admit it to her, but it had been hard.

He mourned the loss of his ability to roll over upon any rude awakening and bury his face into a pillow with a mumble of "five more minutes". Suddenly even the sound of faint footfalls a hundred feet away was enough to send him scrambling out of the sheets, acutely alert and perfectly poised. And he could all but forget about naptime. Any extra zzzzs he managed to catch outside of the few hours he scrapped together between midnight and dawn were few and far between.

He missed the naps. He missed sleeping through thunderstorms. He missed not having bags under his eyes. He missed not having any worries at all.

But sometimes, when he stuck his head into her room to check up on her just as she snorted a violently adorable snore, or when she called him in around three in the morning to talk, just because she couldn't sleep, he'd find himself thinking that maybe- _just maybe_ \- it was all worth it.

He certainly thought so now.

How many times had light-sleeping saved them now? How many midnight escapes had they made when Su Won's soldiers trekked a little too close for comfort?

He thought about the night he'd gone to gather firewood- the one when he'd had that "can I touch you" hallucination. One of the most aggravating nights of his life, with her ridiculous, whiplash behavior, flinching from his touch with her nonplussing protestations over her questionable hygiene. One of the best nights of his life, when she'd finally settled into his arms. When she'd flushed with pleasure at his praise. When she'd held onto his pendant like she never wanted to let go.

He chalked it up to light-sleeping.

And here, under a different midnight sky, being a light-sleeper brought him to her side again.

She hadn't been in the tent. When a cursory scan around their little paradise had not revealed her figure to be anywhere on land, he'd headed down to the beach, knowing the only remaining option was the water. He thanked all the gods that the full moon wasn't bright enough to expose his sudden flush as he nearly tripped over what looked to be her hastily-discarded clothes not five feet from the water's edge, cloaked in darkness.

 _Ah._ Of course. Naturally, since she'd recently revived her interest in hygiene, she was taking advantage of the opportunity the boys' complete exhaustion presented. Hak spun on his heel feeling like his whole body was on fire, the back of his neck and ears no doubt scarlet with embarrassment over what he'd almost intruded upon. But before he could make his hasty exit, her head broke the surface of the water as she gasped desperately for air.

He was by the water's edge in a fraction of a second on instinct alone, thinking she was drowning. But he'd overreacted, he realized as his ratcheted pulse came back down and she slicked back the wet strands of hair that clung to her face, blinking a few times to purge any droplets from her eyes before opening them to the world. She was fine. She was just bathing. She was- she was _naked_. Not that he could see anything below her collarbone. Still, his eyes roamed her hungrily before his brain could tell them to stop, taking in her slim shoulders, her unblemished, alabaster skin, her whirlpool indigo eyes, the star-filled sky perfectly reflected in them, as if the whole universe swirled in their depths. She was… she was...

She was _staring right at him._

He flailed backwards with a shocked outcry and a violent start, his leg accidentally catching on the ball of clothes at his feet and flinging them into the water. They landed near the Princess with a soft _plunk_ , water rippling from their landing point like the rings on a target as they slowly sunk into the murky depths. A panicked cry of surprise escaped from Yona's throat as she dove down after them, surfacing a few moments later with the garments a thorougly doused muddle in her hands.

She looked from them to the boy on the beach with wide eyes, who looked back at her with equally wide eyes. Neither of them moved. Neither of them _breathed_. Then, with overwhelming force, her face bled from palest of pink to reddest of red in the space of a millisecond. "H-Hak?!" she cried. "What are you doing?!"

He could only stare for a second, all color leeched from his face, helpless. She was still submerged in the water from the neck down, so she wasn't even especially exposed, but he couldn't help but feel paralysed, like he'd been caught in the act of doing something scandalous, naughty, forbidden.

He tried to explain, but couldn't get his tongue to move. Had words forsaken him? A fruitless attempt to clear his throat had him about ready to pass out.

Then words poured out of both of them at once, blind panic making them deaf to the other- to anything but their own little worlds, their own little cocoons of irrevocable embarrassment.

"I- I couldn't sleep, I'm sorry I didn't realize-"

"I thought I might bathe- everyone was sleeping-"

"See if you were alright-"

"Didn't mean to wake you-"

"Tripped on the clothes-"

"Hair doesn't smell so bad-"

"They'll be dry by morning I'm sure-"

"Sorry for startling you-"

"Really am very sorry, Princess, please, carry on-"

"Not to blame yourself of course it was an accident-"

"Just be heading back to my tent now-"

"Just meaning to have a wash- wait! HAK, WAIT!"

He turned, his eyes somehow even wider than before. "Princess?" the rushed word was at once a question and an apology.

"I don't- I don't have any other clothes…"

He gulped, fisting his hands into the pockets of his overcoat to keep the panicked craze from setting in again.

He blinked.

His _overcoat._

He quickly shrugged off the garment and held it out towards her with one hand, turning his back so as to, as Kija had so eloquently put it, preserve the Princess' modesty. For a heartbeat, there was silence. Then the slight sloshing of waves as she made her way to shore and plucked the coat from his hand. He heard the rustle of fabric as she tugged it on, waiting at least thirty seconds longer than it had ever taken anyone to put on an overcoat ever before turning around, just to be safe.

He said nothing as he took in the sight of her in front of him, buried in the folds of his coat, sopping wet, the moisture on her skin making the fabric cling to her in ways he tried to ignore. She was holding it closed with one hand, while her other held her own clothing, waterlogged but successfully recovered. Even if he'd known what to say, he wouldn't have trusted himself to say it.

How was he ever going to be able to wear that overcoat again?

"Um," she murmured, gaze turned down, incredibly vulnerable and shy. Hak struggled to keep breathing as he felt his blood boil and thrum. "Do you think you could hold these for a second?" she held out the pile of clothing. "My- my chest bindings, I can tie it shut if I just have-"

He quickly accommodated, laying the remainder of her clothes neatly out to dry on the sand as she wrapped the band of cloth around her waist. She heaved a sigh of relief.

Though sopping, it would suffice.

Another lapse of painfully unsure, excruciatingly uncomfortable silence had Hak turning to retreat once more.

"W- wait…"

He faltered. "Princess?" Inwardly, he flinched. He sounded much too eager.

"Um- what? Oh no, it's nothing, n-nevermind."

"Did you need something?"

"No, nothing. It was just me being selfish again."

He took in her figure, head bent, fingers interlocked in the way that he knew she held them to stop them from twiddling. She was strangely... vulnerable before him. Something in his chest ached at the sight of it.

"Princess… you're soaked. You won't be able to fall asleep like this."

"Oh... I'll be fine, really. It's a nice night to watch the moon."

"I agree. I think I'll stay up to watch it too." He glanced over at her, nonchalant. "At least until the Princess is dry." He crossed to her casually, carefully as a slow, secret smile slid across her face.

He hadn't realized before, but this close he could see the goosebumps on the flesh of her neck as she wrapped the coat tighter around her still.

"Princess… you're shivering…" He raised his arms, stepping closer to her, intending to swaddle her with his own body heat. Yes, the hug would be purely for practical purposes.

"Hak… H- Hak! Don't come any closer!"

 _This again_? Hadn't she just washed her hair? His arms dropped automatically, limp and defeated, as he took two short steps away from her, perturbed. He tried to keep the annoyance from leaking into his tone, but it still came out a rough deadpan. "Is this far enough?"

"I- I'll get you all wet…"

What? That's what she was worried about? His incredulous gaze quickly dissolved into a snort and a playful smirk. "I suppose we would be even then."

He shook out his hair like a wet dog to remind her of the earlier scene, when he'd charged out of the water and towards her as she stood by the fire, roasting a leg of wild boar, standing right next to her as he dried off in vigorous, full-bodied shakeouts, droplets flying everywhere, soaking her and nearly putting out the fire as she shrieked in surprise. He'd cackled at her open-mouthed discomposure, her high-pitched squeal, her rapidly reddening cheeks until she began to laugh too, until they were both rolling around on the ground wrapped up in their own furious fits of what could only be classified as the giggles. Delirious, cathartic giggles.

(Yun looked on from across the fire, his pork leg dangling loosely at his side, doomed to remain woefully undercooked. "Madmen," he muttered to himself as he watched the two figures on the ground with mounting disbelief, as the neverending stream of hiccups and snorts assaulted his eardrums. "They're both madmen."

But he couldn't quite hide the quirks at the corners of his mouth. Not even after spitting out the daring bite he'd taken of his far-too-chewy pork.)

"Even…" she murmured as her eyes glazed over with memory. She huffed a short laugh as she took a step closer to him, flicking her hand at him playfully so that the water droplets rolled off of her fingertips and flew at his face. "Yeah, I suppose we would be."

He gulped involuntarily as she continued to draw near. Thinking back on the earlier event, he shivered now with the sudden realization that the episode may have been crossing some unspoken boundaries. What had possessed him to behave so casually with the Princess? True, it had been nothing more than innocent fun (an infuriatingly smooth, droopy-eyed voice corrected "innocent _flirting_ " in the back of his mind, but he shoved it aside), but... well, he had toed the line, at the very least.

It was this place, he decided. Each lap of the waves siphoned away at his precaution. Each lazy breeze swept a little more of his inhibition away.

And it wasn't just him, he knew. Everyone had felt the effects of the haven today, had felt the knots ease in their shoulders and the laughter bubble up more easily from their chests.

"It was a good day," he said as the Princess stopped just short of touching him, close enough that he could feel the stray drops of water dripping off her chin pitter-patter on to his toes. Just to say something. Just to keep his breathing steady.

"It was a good day," she agreed with a soft smile.

Disconcerted by their unexpected proximity, he took her hand in his, to stop her from stepping any closer and sat down cross-legged in the sand, gently tugging the Princess down next to him. They stared up at the moon together, remembering the events of the day. It was one unlikely to be forgotten anytime soon.

Zeno refereeing the chicken fight tournament the boys had cooked up in the water, Hak emerging victorious with Kija a close second.

Munching on deliciously seasoned meat for lunch as they all sat around the crackling fire, Shin-ah winning every round of "Find the Ao" they played as they ate, spotting the squirrel hiding in the tall grass on even the other side of the valley in a matter of seconds without fail.

The boys gleefully scooping Shin-ah up and dumping him unceremoniously in the water for "cheating". Shin-ah's subsequent cramp. "You shouldn't swim on a full stomach, you know, Mister!" Zeno'd advised, nodding sagely, prompting snickers from Hak and Jae-ha.

Everyone working together to build a mermaid tail of sand around Yun's legs, Kija's claw the perfect tool to carve beautiful, detailed, ridiculous scales.

Jae-ha flying all the boys up to the top of the cliff overhanging the water, everyone taking turns jumping off the edge, whooping and hollering over the pure, simple, uncomplicated thrill as they tumbled down, down, down into the waves with massive splashes (and once or twice, the loud, painful-sounding thunderclap _thwack_ that only a well-executed bellyflop could make), drenching the Princess and Yun even as she cheered and clapped and he shrieked in indignation.

Everyone laying side-by-side on the beach in the content, comfortable silence that signaled the nearing end of a day filled with fun; staring up at the slowly sinking sun, watching it disappear into the horizon, leaving in its trail brilliant, prismatic traces of its glow: amber, topaz, rose, and gold smeared across the sky.

The Princess took a deep breath beside him, a satisfying intake of crisp night air, before wrapping her arms around her legs and nestling her head on her knees as she turned her neck to look over at the boy sitting next to her. "Seeing everyone splashing around today, looking so lively… it made me so happy."

"Ah. I'm glad." He kept his eyes on the moon.

"Hak… are you?"

"Eh?"

"Are you… happy?"

The question brought his gaze slanting down to hers. "Of course," he said, point-blank, no hesitation. "Princess, if you are happy, then I-"

"But Hak-" she cut him off, distressed. "How can you be after- when you're always working, always worrying about me?" She raked an unhappy hand through her hair with a frustrated, unhappy sigh. When she spoke again, her voice was somber, edged with self-loathing.

"You're checking up on me even now, staying up with me when you should be sleeping. It;s selfish of me not to send you back to your tent right now." She smiled softly. "I know how much you like to sleep."

"Selfish? There is nowhere I would rather-"

"And I know you say that- that seeing me happy makes you happy… that you'll stay annoyingly close by my side…" she seemed to steel herself, swiveling her entire body to face him head-on.

"Hak… I just want you to know…" His pulse quickened. "I am so happy, just being with all of you. So I hope that you are happy… and that you know you're free to do other things that make you happy too."

Her voice dropped down to a fraction of a whisper. He leaned in closer just to catch what she said next. "E-even if they don't involve… being b-by my side…"

He couldn't tear his eyes away from hers as her words settled in his stomach like butterflies. In his chest, jumpstarting his heartbeat. In his mind, drifting in like a cloud, fogging up his senses.

Maybe it was the valley. Maybe it was this place and the memory of the near-perfect day they'd shared together here, all seven of them, still rattling through his bones, still warming his heart, easing the weight on his shoulders he had become so accustomed to, just a little.

Maybe he was drunk on the moonlight, the mood.

Maybe it was the primal, entirely male part of him that was roaring in approval at the sight of her in front of him, so serene and solemn and _wearing his coat-_

Maybe it was Droopy Eyes' annoying, impossible-to-ignore voice in his head.

" _The Princess has been acting quite strange around you lately, hasn't she?"_

" _All the blushing and stuttering and panicking."_

" _Open your eyes."_

What was that guy playing at?

Unbidden, a thousand instances flooded into Hak's mind of the Princess' erratic behavior as of late.

Something had shifted between them. The banter didn't come as easy anymore, their interactions not quite so effortless. Not quite so automatic. The air between them was hung more heady, filled with the weight unsaid words. Unsaid feelings.

Or was it just in his mind?

He was going to kill Droopy Eyes in the morning. He was always doing this to him, messing with his head. Making him do stupid things he'd later regret.

The Honey Incident flashed through his mind right on cue, despite Hak's desperate desire to forget it had ever happened. A thousand other moments when he'd gotten his hopes up, failed to resist, deluded himself into thinking he had even a sliver of a chance...

But… did he regret them all?

Did he regret kissing her on the cheek before charging off into battle in Kin province? Grabbing her hand after she'd given him the pendant? Taking her into his arms and telling her she was the most amazing girl he'd ever met?

The valley had struck him as something out of a dream earlier, when they'd first arrived. Maybe that's what this was, just a dream, just another dream, and he'd wake up soon to find Zeno's snoring face two inches from his rather than the Princess' that blinked up at him now.

Wow… two inches… she really was close. When did she get so close?

Maybe…

Maybe…

Maybe this time was different. It felt different. It felt… expectant. Charged.

It felt _right_.

Maybe he was tired of maybes.

Whatever it was that sent Hak finally, finally over the edge, there was no maybe about it.

He crossed the distance, the air that hung heavy with so many unsaid things, and closed the space between them.

or maybe _she was kissing him back_ , and maybe this moment, this one moment, obliterated all others, or maybe it made all the others worth it. Everything they'd been through together, maybe it had all been worth it.

Maybe he was wrong for thinking that way. He didn't care. Not now, at least. All he cared about now were her lips moving feverishly against his own and her body as she crawled closer to him, nestled into his lap, and fingers clinging to his undershirt with a tenacity that he'd once been surprised to see from her, but no longer. And maybe he needed to come up for air but maybe he could hold out a little longer, maybe he could prolong this one perfect kiss, this one perfect moment forever, maybe he could-

She broke away, gasping for breath, face heated, the darkest shade of crimson he'd ever seen. Kami, she was adorable. Maybe he wanted to bundle her up and hide her away here in the valley, where he could have her all to himself, where no one else would ever be able to see her again. Or maybe he wanted to show her the entire world, show her _to_ the entire world, show her off to every peasant and farmer and lord and lady and soldier and shopkeeper- show them how amazing she was, show them that she was hers, she was entirely her own, but she was also _his_ -

His. What a dangerous word. Maybe it was a word that changed everything. Undoubtedly it was a word that made him want more. He had to have her again. He leaned in for another kiss-

"Wait! H-Hak wait, stop!"

She looked so conflicted, so confused. She brought a hand up to her lips, feeling them as if to make sure they were real, almost disbelieving when she realized undeniably that yes, they were real, _this_ was real. Maybe he was imagining the faint glimmer of something like _hope_ stirring in the depths of her indigo irises or maybe it was there amidst all her incredulity and was fighting against it, fighting just like _he'd_ been fighting it-

"W- Why did you do that?!"

He just laughed. A laugh that was pure light, bright and soaring and _free_.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Your face right now… makes me so happy." He brought his forehead to hers, closing his eyes, feeling like everything was right in the world. When was the last time he'd felt like everything was right in the world?

Maybe if his eyes had been open he would've noticed the stormcloud growing in the Princess' eyes, the devastation that she tried urgently to hide as the truth of the situation she had been struggling so dazedly to understand dawned on her with perceived devastating clarity.

"Y-you've gone too far this time!"

What?

She jerked away from him, rising to her feet and staggering back a couple of steps, dodging the hand Hak extended to pull her back to him, the boy failing to comprehend the irrational turn of events. "Princess… what's wrong?"

Tears had welled in her eyes, though she blinked violently in a vain attempt to banish them away.

"Why… why are you cr-"

"I thought you weren't going to play those sort of jokes anymore."

Jokes?

A… joke?

No.

Oh no.

"Princess, wait, you misundersta-"

But she was already gone, halfway to her tent, water droplets dripping angrily from her sodden tresses like the tears that she refused to shed in front of him.

xxxx

A/N: Poor Hak… Just can't seem to catch a break…

XD

 _Bookgirl18,_ the first of three kisses-outside-the-castle for you- hope you liked this one. :) _HakFAN_ , hope you found Yona a bit more likeable in this chapter- completely understand your frustration with her (she's so blind, the numbskull, really!), _Aki no Ryu,_ yes! "Wanted is such a great suggestion, can't believe I haven't thought of it before- and I absolutely adore the anime soundtrack! A Place in the Sun for Hak is my second favorite track, after the Melancholy version of the theme (it never fails to hit me right in the feels). _Rockin' angels_ , I had to look up what the suffix -nim meant after your review and the Wikipedia-provided answer had my face splitting into a massive grin. Thank you so much. :)

Might be a bit of a longer wait before the next chapter as I'm still a bit fuzzy on how I want to set it up and I start school in SIX DAYS (gods help me aaaahhh!). Thank you to everyone for reading, favoriting, following, reviewing! Can't express how much each one means to me.

Much love,

Rosie

xxxxxx


	5. Five

Droopy Eyes wasn't his first choice, but as far as drinking buddies went, he'd had worse.

In all fairness, the green dragon kept up with him far better than most others had been able to, easily outdrinking any of the lightweights he'd commanded back at the palace, more on par with Geun-Tae or Gramps. And although the notably numerous scattered bottle of sake strewn around the two of them had begun to take effect, easing Hak's tensions a bit, making him at least twice as lenient as usual when it came to putting up with Droopy Eyes' _annoying_ tendencies, it also had the unfortunate effect of making the dragon at _least_ twice as obnoxious as usual.

"Ah, Hak my boy," Jae-ha chortled as he downed another cup, clapping the disgruntled boy on the back with a force to rival Kija's super-strength arm, "are you a man made of lightning or steel? We've been here for hours and you have yet to crack a smile!" At this he reached over to grab Hak's cheeks, spreading them apart in an effort to reveal the younger boy's underutilized pearly whites.

Hak jerked his head out of grasp and grimaced, grinding his teeth together to prevent him from saying something rude, then taking another swig from the bottle he was nursing when his verbal restraint seemed about to falter.

Jae-ha- masochistic, uninhibited, thoroughly inebriated Jae-ha- didn't seem to get the message. Or if he did, he interpreted it as an an invitation rather than a warning. His leering smile grew wider.

"Hak," he mockingly sighed, shaking his head in teasing pity, "o young, stunted friend of mine, always so stoic…" he ruffled the other boy's hair and half-assedly tried to hide his amusement at the Thunder Beast's resulting growl.

Jae-ha _tsk_ -ed in reproach. "Now Thunder Beast, there's no need for antagonism." He grinned. "I must say, you hold your liquor astonishingly well. Seven bottles in and you've still got just as much of a stick up your ass as usual!"

Another non-retort. Another swig of sake.

Yes, he'd had worse drinking buddies than Droopy Eyes, but that really wasn't saying much.

He wondered how many bottles to go before Jae-ha passed out or left with one of the pretty tavern girls that had been eyeing the two of them for the better part of the last hour. Too many, considering the green-haired man hadn't even begun slurring his words yet. Far too many, considering a tipsy Jae-ha was equivalent to any other man wasted, as far as irritatingness went. The dragon was bad enough when he was stone-cold sober.

It was going to be a long night.

"Haaaaaaaaaak," Jae-ha pouted, tugging on his sleeve in a gesture that was disturbingly reminiscent of the Princess, not too long ago- or lifetimes ago. It felt like lifetimes ago. "Won't you smile for me, Hak? I need something to carry me through the days ahead, some warm memory to hold on to…"

Hak continued to ignore him and flagged down the bartender, who appeared almost immediately, a bland smile on his face that didn't quite reach his calculating eyes. "Yes, sir?"

Hak shoved his half-finished bottle across the countertop. "Something stronger."

The bartender took in Hak's grimy appearance, from his greasy, hardly-washed hair to his shabby, frayed clothing. He opened his mouth to say something but stopped short at the silver piece suddenly shoved in his face. Hak looked bored as he waggled the coin belligerently, raising an eyebrow. "Is there a problem?"

The bland smile was back in place, and the bartender plucked the piece from his hand. "Not at all." He tilted his head forward in a cursory bow before sidling away.

He ignored Jae-ha's chuckles- the guy just seemed to find everything so damn _amusing_ tonight- as he waited for the man to return, turning around in his stool to lean his elbows back against the counter as he lazily scanned the room. The tavern bustled around them, barmaids tittering seductively as they poured more ale for beefy men with aggressive, booming laughs, battle-hardened soldiers swapping stories of triumphs and defeats as they tore into roasted lamb and guzzled steaming stew like this might be the last meal they ever ate.

In one of the far corners, by a crackling fireplace, Zeno crooned a drunken rendition of "The Ballad of King Hiryuu" as a crowd of other revelers, Kija included, listened rapturously.

A new bottle appeared at Hak's elbow. He grunted his thanks at the bartender without bothering to look back and took a long swig, refusing to gag or sputter as the contents of the bottle slid, burning and bitter, down his throat. He didn't know what the bottle contained, but Kami, it was disgusting. Although it was, to the barmaster's credit, certainly stronger. He pushed it away in distaste. Jae-ha picked it up, sniffed it, and made a face. "Surely rum would have sufficed."

Hak barely heard him as his eyes snagged on a nearby couple, most likely man and wife, the otherwise slender woman clearly with child. She sobbed into her husband's shoulder, burying her face in the crook of his neck as he tried to solace her, firmly nestling an arm around her. He placed his free hand gently on her swollen stomach, and Hak noted that he looked near tears himself. He snatched the bottle back out of Jae-ha's hands and took another searing gulp.

A smattering of applause cut through the din of the room as the final note of Zeno's tune faded away. The yellow dragon bowed good-naturedly before flouncing over to Kija as a group of three men took his newly-vacated spot and began to play a lively tune, drums and tambourine and pipe. Cheers went up and the crowd began to part as Zeno tugged a frazzled Kija back up near the band and spun him around with childish abandon. His laughter spilled out of him, warm and infectious, and he waved a hand to the onlookers to join him. First a young girl joined the pair, clearly a trained dancer, twirling in effortless circles around them, then an old couple, then a group of children, until the whole left side of the tavern became a dance hall, a mesh of people cavorting around on the open floor, hooting and hollering. Strangers danced with strangers as the music grew louder, with those not dancing stomping feet or clapping along to the steady beat of the drum.

Jae-ha let out a low whistle. "Well, that's not something you see every day. Rather impressive… but unsurprising, when Ouryuu is concerned." Hak nodded his agreement.

"Look how he dances so freely, Hak! He radiates with life! Why don't you join him? Who knows when you'll get another chance?"

The formal general said nothing for a moment as he watched Zeno lift a small boy up onto his shoulders and twirl him around, both of them whooping in joy, eyes crinkled. Outwardly, Hak remained apathetic, even as inwardly he tried to prevent treacherous resentment from infiltrating his thoughts. Still, they wormed their way in unbidden. _Easy to be merry when you know you won't die tomorrow._ He shoved the thought aside, ashamed of his pettiness. Tomorrow would be easy for no one. He braved another sip of alcohol, closing his eyes and letting the sounds of the room swirl around. Rather than uplifted or inspired, the cacophony just made him feel… exhausted. "I'll pass."

He wanted to punch Droopy Eyes for looking so excited, he really did. So _annoying_. "At last he speaks!" Kami, what a mistake that was. Too late to backtrack, Hak vowed not to make it again, if Droopy Eyes was only going to take any words from him as encouragement.

Jae-ha blinked at him expectantly for a solid minute or two, then tried not to look put-out as he realized that more words from his (terrible, really dreadfully terrible) drinking buddy for the night were nonforthcoming. "A fluke then?" He rubbed his hands together in determination. "Well, the cynical might say. I, however, view it as a feat! There's hope for you yet, friend!"

Insufferable. By the gods, he was insufferable. Another swig of whatever strong substance the bartender had brewed for him, and Hak didn't taste the bitter tang quite so strongly as it slipped down his throat. The bottle was nearly empty now, and finally, he thought he could feel it starting to slosh through his veins.

"Ahh, I see the flush rising in your cheeks, my friend. The atmosphere is reaching you at last, ne?" He clapped his hands together with a sudden burst of determination. "Why don't we dance? The music is good, the women are beautiful and the night is young!" He made to get up, but seeing that he'd failed to elicit even an eye roll from the Thunder Beast, slumped back down in his stool instead.

Really, what right did Hak have to be so brooding? They were all worried about the events that would play out tomorrow. All the more reason to enjoy tonight. Wasn't that why they'd come? He cursed the black-haired boy for being so stubborn, then cursed himself for being equally so. For if he had been any less stubborn, Jae-ha would have abandoned the Thunder Beast to his moping hours ago, but after bottle after bottle of the cold shoulder… no.

Now it was personal.

Jae-ha glowered at the crowd as he sulked in his stool, the dancer girl catching his eye as she shimmied seductively to the rowdy drinking song the band was now playing. She was graceful enough, he guessed, and easy on the eyes of course, but he'd seen better. Namely, his darling Yona. He wished she was here… she would be so easy to sweep off her feet once he tugged her out onto the dance floor… he didn't care if Hak would be mad, he'd-

Wait a minute.

Heh.

He had an idea.

He giggled to himself secretly. Funnny. Everything was funnny.

He looped an arm around Hak's shoulders, a gargantuan grin plastered on his face. "You know, it is a real shame that _darling_ Yona is back at the inn with Yun and Shin-ah, isn't it Hak? She would just _love_ all this, wouldn't she? I really think she would."

Hak shrugged the green dragon's arm off, infuriatingly calm and collected.

Jae-ha brought his hand up to his chin to stroke his beard contemplatively. (Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew there was no beard, but he ignored that fact in an effort to commit fully to this role.)

"I'm surprised our little Princess chose not to tag along tonight, actually…" he pondered. "She's usually begging to come drink with us, isn't she Thunder Beast?" He might as well have been a fly buzzing around for all the reaction Hak showed.

"Ah, but, Yona Dearest has been rather evasive lately, hasn't she? If I didn't know any better, I might think she was avoiding you... " at first his sly glance sideways seemingly revealed nothing, Hak supposedly as impassive as ever. But Jae-ha didn't fail to notice the almost-imperceptible whitening of the Thunder Beast's fingers as his grip tightened on the glass bottle.

 _Gotcha._

 _Heh._

He smirked to himself, then laughed an ever-so-innocent laugh as he tugged his eyes away from Hak to focus on pouring another cup of sake, tone deviously offhand as he shook his head dismissively. "Of course, that would imply something had happened between the two of you, and we both know you don't have the balls to make a move…"

He felt his face smash into the well-worn countertop rather than the blow to the back of his head. Heard the gasps and bellows from the other bar-goers rather than the crunch of his nose cracking against the wood. He lifted his head, eyes full of twisted delight as he wiped the trickling blood from under his nose and rose, rolling back his shoulders and cracking first his neck, side-to-side, then his knuckles in one efficient, no-nonsense gesture.

 _Yes._ Finally. This was what he needed. _This_ was what he'd come for- what they'd all come for.

 _Distraction_.

It seemed Jae-ha's distraction would be coming in a different form than dancing and dallying tonight. Well, he was just fine with that.

More than fine. He _reveled_ in the pain of his broken nose, in the concentration it took to counter each of Hak's relentless blows, fists flying at the speed of light. The world narrowed to Hak's fists and his own. Jab, feint, dodge. Feint, dodge, jab. Throw in a kick every once in a while for good measure.

Jea-ha smirked, smile barbed as he ducked to avoid a right-hand hook. "I always have wondered which of us would win in a fight. Without your spear and my leg, it seems we're on even ground."

Hak didn't deign to reply. Jae-ha wasn't even sure that he'd heard him, so fierce was the boy in his deluge of fury, all the pent-up anxiety and aggression finally, finally pouring out of him. Despite his precarious circumstances, the green dragon found himself laughing. Then he took a fist to the gut and the laugh sputtered out as he landed with his back on the ground ten feet away, Hak prowling towards him with single-minded predation. Dimly Jae-ha was aware that the tavern was in utter chaos around them, the two of them seeming to have provoked a fully-fledged bar brawl. Not entirely surprising. The tension had simmered in the air all night, transforming the dingy room into a powderkeg about to explode. Hak and Jae-ha had merely lit the match.

It seemed the world was going to shit a few hours ahead of schedule.

Jae-ha rolled and hopped effortlessly over Hak's head as the other boy neared, landing behind him without so much as a _thunk_. He made for a blow to the Thunder Beast's exposed back, but Hak whirled at the last moment and blocked Jae-ha's fist with his forearm, deflecting it. He bared his teeth, eyes hazy with a deadly combination of alcohol and adrenaline. Jae-ha stumbled backwards, granted only a second before Hak began advancing on him again with manic intent. The black-haired boy brought his left fist back. Jae-ha darted to the side and aimed a dragon-laced kick at the exposed flesh of Hak's stomach and made impact, sending the boy flying all the way across the tavern, a cry of pain escaping from Hak's lips as his back thudded against the closed entryway doors with a sickening crack.

He slid down the door into a crumpled heap on the floor, and for a moment Jae-ha thought he'd been knocked out by the force of the collision. He heaved a sigh of relief as he dusted himself off, easily fending off a stray drunken nobleman that came charging at him (rather ambitiously, Jae-ha thought; the nobleman was a rather scrawny thing). He began picking his way across the room, content to carry the unconscious Thunder Beast to their room across the street at the Inn, call it a night, and gloat in the morning, but stopped in his tracks a safe distance away from the downed boy as he began to stir.

Hak picked himself up off the ground one limb at a time, bracing himself against a table to get to his feet. Blood trickled down the side of his neck from a wound on the back of his head, and as his eyes flashed, gaze piercing into Jae-ha's own, he looked for all the world like he'd been to Hell and back.

Kami. It was a marvel he had survived the blow from Jae-ha's leg, let alone remained conscious. No wonder they called him Beast- this guy was a monster. Dark Dragon indeed.

He started towards Jae-ha again, this time painfully slowly, one hand using the tables to stay upright, the other clutching at his side, which surely housed broken ribs. But the promise of retaliation in his eyes had Jae-ha frozen firmly in place, wishing simultaneously that he'd had a little less to drink and a little more.

The sound of glass breaking all around him seemed almost ironic. Ominous. Metaphorical.

He felt a strange mixture of pity, terror, and guilt as he watched the Thunder Beast make his way towards him. Uncertain of how to handle Hak in his current state- he didn't dare strike him again for fear of any more permanent damage- he merely stood unheroically as the boy staggered over to him, grabbing onto his shirt for support but turning the gesture into a menacing grab of the collar.

They stood eye-to-eye a few moments, livid blue clashing with apologetic green. Jae-ha was considering just enveloping his poor, beat-up friend in his arms and bro-hugging it out when the large polished oak doors slammed open, a freezing blast of winter's wind sweeping through the tavern, a jarring enough contrast to the sweat-soaked hall that most faltered in their disorderly conduct and turned to gape at the open doorway in astonishment.

A few moments of bewildered wordlessness, the low murmur of heavy panting the only disruption to the silence. Then, a shocked whisper: "Princess Yona…"

For the Princess indeed stood in the doorway, flanked on either side by Zeno and Kija, the latter still a bit incoherent but trying his best, the former remarkably sobered. Gasps rippled through the crowd, and as if a switch had been flipped, the entire dining hall began to kneel, murmurs of "forgive us, Princess," and "apologies, Your Highness" floating up into the air.

Only Hak and Jae-ha remained standing, frozen in place, repentantly avoiding the Princess' wide-eyed gaze as she took in the blood-stained floor, the overturned chairs, the countless bits of shattered glass, and lastly, in the middle of it all, her boys.

"Hak…? Jae-ha? What happened here?!" She rushed over to them, prying Hak's death grip from Jae-ha's collar and looping his arm around her shoulder, staggering under his weight. She began to pick her way to the door, calling over her shoulder, "Jae-ha, can you walk? Let's get you two out of here-"

"Princess…" Hak croaked, "wait…"

With great effort, he disengaged from her, unwrapping her arms from his torso and hobbling over to the nearest piece of furniture left standing, a round table, and collapsing against it gratefully.

"Hak? What is it?"

One hand on his ribs again, he used the other to gesture to the whole room, a sweeping motion. "They're waiting for you."

And sure enough, every pair of eyes blinked up at the Princess expectantly, expressions of wonder and hope etched into spit-lipped countenances.

A quick intake of breath was the only inclination to the Princess' astonishment. "Me?" she murmured, almost to herself, followed by, much louder, "I mean, o- of course." She gulped, then darted a glance at Hak, who stared back at her, with utter calm, a pillar of complete faith. He bowed his head slightly, a comfort and a cue.

It was all she needed. "C-citizens of Kouka," she began tentatively, eyes still trained on Hak. "I'm sorry for interrupting your evening. I am… I'm sorry for disrupting your lives." Her gaze broke apart from his as she began surveying the room, making eye contact with all those who listened, spellbound, each and every one. "I don't know the individual circumstances that have brought you here to this room, but I know that each and every one of you has sacrificed. You've left behind family, and friends. Brothers, sisters, children, mothers, f- fathers." Her voice cracked on the word _father_. She inhaled deeply and stood up straighter as she released the breath, and when she spoke again, her confidence seemed to grow with every word, her address swelling with sudden strength to fill the room. "You have left behind lives to join me, for the sake of Kouka Kingdom, for the sake of our futures, and for that… I am eternally grateful."

She blinked rapidly in an effort to fend off the tears in her eyes that threatened to spill over. "Tomorrow we march on the False King, Su-Won. Us, and many more. We will join with legions led by our Generals. The Fire, Water, Earth and Wind tribes all march with us, though the False King allies himself with neighboring kingdoms, with our enemies.

"We intend to attempt to settle the matter peacefully. We believe there is a great chance that Su-Won will turn over the throne, that he truly does have Kouka's best interest at heart. We do this to end the draft that fuels the Kingdom's expansionist efforts. We do this to eliminate the soldiers patrolling the kingdom, encroaching on our territories, our livelihoods, our existences. We are the people of Kouka, and we will demand to be heard."

The cry of assent that rose up from the crowd was quickly hushed as she continued, more softly now. "However, there are no guarantees. I wish… I wish I could make things more certain. There are things I could still do, things I might have done differently... I wish I had more time." Yona's hooded gaze fixed firmly on her wringing hands for a pause thick with unspoken sentiments. Then she started suddenly, shaken from her soliloquy.

"The time is now," she called, as the infamous fire began to burn behind her eyes. "To stand, to demand, and if need be to fight. For our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children- our families. For a better life than this. For Kouka. For all of us."

Her words were simple, honest, without grandeur or facade. But the conviction behind them, the spirit of King Hiryuu, shone through. At first her speech was met with silence as her message settled down upon the room like a blanket, wrapped around shoulders like suits of armor.

Hak pushed himself off the table, standing on his own. "For all of us." he rumbled, and like a dam breaking, a chorus of reprisals flooded the tavern. All around people burst to their feet, exclaiming their support for Kouka, for the kingdom's true ruler. The bartender from before clambered up onto his counter, shouting, "drinks all around!" to another surge of appreciative hollering.

Yona took that as her cue to excuse herself and her companions. Hak put one arm around her shoulders and the other around Jae-ha's and they limped over to the doorway, the Princess smiling and clasping hands with the people who reached out to her as they passed by, wanting to touch the symbol of their salvation.

Then the doors slammed shut behind them and once again it was just the hooded girl and her warriors in the cold, dark night.

xxxxx

"Hold still." The words were curt and sharp as she pressed the wine-soaked rag to the back of Hak's head, ignoring his wince of pain as it made contact with the raw, open wound. The rag quickly turned red from the blood. She set it aside and began to soak another.

Her earlier concern had faded as soon as she'd grasped the gravity of Hak's injuries and the utter _stupidity_ of his actions. Now, as she raised her hand to hold the new rag to the gash, she felt her barely-tempered anger rise along with it, refusing to lie dormant. He hissed as the alcohol made sudden, stinging contact with his exposed flesh, but she showed no sympathy. "Hush." she said, ignoring the quaver in her voice, then began dabbing the balled-up cloth slowly along the edges of the cut none-too-gently, the wine purging it of any toxin or infection as she traced the contours of the slash with clinical, methodical precision.

The silence hung heavy, a river between them, threatening to drown her. She focused on her breathing, keeping it even, light, but couldn't iron out the hitch in her breath as she pulled the rag away to reveal the full extent of the incision, no tenuous sinew or clotting to hide how deep it ran. It gleamed pink in the dim light of the lanterns that littered the room, running vertically from the crown of his head to the nape of his neck, splitting unnaturally through his skin like a wide, crude canyon. A canyon of his own creation. He might as well have taken a knife and carved it himself. She pressed the now-bloodstained material to the tender center of the wound with more force than was necessary.

She was being cruel, and she hated herself for it, but in that moment she hated him too. Hated him for his blood and his bruises and his rage and his recklessness. Hated him because she understood him. She understood him so completely and acutely it _hurt._

Panic sliced through her, an ice cold dagger to the heart, as the image of him in the center of that wide-eyed tavern flashed through her memory, rattled around in her skull- his back to her, a trickling trail of blood stark against his pale neck, the tension in his shoulders as he clung to Jae-ha like the green-haired man was the only thing keeping him from collapse.

He'd looked so much like he had _that_ day. Even the thought of it sent a cold shiver down her spine, the over-the-edge frenzy he'd descended into as he surged towards Su-won, the desperation in his attack as he tossed Jae-ha aside like an angry predator swatting away a creature that had stepped in the path to his prey, nothing but stormclouds of hatred and fury roiling in his normally clear-sky eyes. His staggered gait, his outstretched hand, the blood that slipped down his cheek, the twin stream to the tear that slipped from his eye.

How lost he'd looked as he stood there, restrained, reaching towards the boy who had murdered the King, severed their ties, ruined their lives.

Who had been his best friend.

She remembered reaching her own hand out to his, covering his clenched fingers with her own, a tether, a reassurance that was solid and real and warm. It had been a strange sort of role reversal, that moment; for the first time _she_ was the one tugging _him_ out of the dark, _she_ was the one being _his_ anchor, _his_ light.

That day, that moment, had changed everything. As she'd lain down her head that night, sleep had eluded her, eclipsed by an ocean of self-loathing, regret, disgust.

How many times had she missed it?

He was hurting too.

She'd known that, of course she had, known that Su-won's betrayal had stung them both. She'd just never realized how deeply.

Tonight, every time her eyes landed on him, took in his battered form, she was reminded of what she'd realized that sleepless night… that Hak's wounds ran just as deep as her own.

Shame had coursed through her like the tide, wave after wave of it, relentless, as she'd realized with sudden harrowing clarity all the ways she had failed him. All the times she had failed his pain, too caught up in thoughts of her father and her loss and her destiny and herself. Even before tragedy had befallen the both of them, she had mistreated him, enjoyed subjecting him to her every whim, taken pleasure in the power she held over him, in his bowing to her will, the reluctant but unfailing servant. What had she ever done to deserve him? Paid him the proper wages? But he wasn't just a servant. He'd never been. He'd known that, hadn't he? He was her friend.

Friend.

The silence stretched on. She broke it only after she deemed the abrasion sufficiently cleansed, rising and beckoning him towards the small washbasin that stood in the corner of their tatami-papered room. "Come."

He followed. Three buckets of clear water sat near the bowl, lugged in by Shin-ah minutes earlier at Yun's behest.

It was almost comical, the way the youngest of the bunch had taken control of the situation with all the assurance and authority of the world's most seasoned commander. He was the epitome of a Mama in crisis mode. " _Shin-ah, fetch six buckets of water and split them between two of the rooms. Yona, you take care of Hak in this one. I'll tend to Jae-ha in the next. Zeno, Kija, you've both had a long night. Rest. You too, Shin-ah, once you've returned with the buckets."_ Kija had tried to argue, interjecting with protestations of his willingness and desire to assist his master, but Yun had stymied him with a glare sharp enough to put his dragon claws to shame. " _Go."_

Still Kija might have objected had Zeno not intervened, looping an easy arm around the white dragon's shoulders. Though his words were directed at Kija, he pinned Yona with a knowing, centuries-old look as he spoke them, ushering the dejected dragon from the room. " _Come on, Mister, let's go. The Little Miss has some things she needs to take care of. She doesn't need us getting in her way! Besides, Zeno sure is sleepy!"_

The room shrank as the two disappeared down the hall, grew suffocating as the other three followed in their footsteps. First Shin-ah had exited, hurrying down to the river, Ao in tow. Then, after rummaging briefly through the medical pack for the supplies he would need, Yun had shuffled a still-woozy Jae-ha from the room. The red-haired boy had lingered in the doorway, glancing between Yona and Hak for a minute, expression uncharacteristically unreadable. Finally, he'd just sighed and shook his head. "Take care of things," he said softly, then turned on his heel and was gone, tugging the door softly shut behind him. Yona wasn't sure if he had been addressing her or her charge.

Neither of them spoke as they waited for Shin-ah to return with the water. Yona busied herself with the medpack, bustling over to the bag and digging through it in search of the supplies she would need: the corked bottle of purging wine, a shallow stone bowl to pour it in, a small, wood-handled knife to sluice the yards of untailored fabric into long strips of passably thick bandage.

She forced her eyes to remain focused on the task at hand, carefully angling the knife through the material with dogged single-mindedness, but her resolved crumbled as the minutes dragged on and still Shin-ah had not returned. They strayed.

Her heart broke at the sight of him.

He sat cross-legged on the floor, leant against the foot of the bed, head tilted back, eyes closed. Lanternlight flickered off his unnaturally waxen skin, caused the thin sheen of sweat on his forehead and exposed throat to shimmer. The tiniest drop of scarlet beaded on the upper ridge of his barely-split lip. Dried blood matted his hair, causing it to droop in the same manner as his slumped posture. She had never seen Hak this way before, never seen him without his shoulders squared and his spine erect. He looked like an angel twice fallen, first exiled from Heaven but then expelled from the depths of Hell. He looked broken.

He looked defeated.

" _Hak_ ," she choked, and his eyes flew open, gaze immediately snapping to hers. Though there was no alcohol-induced haze clouding his vision any longer, his eyes were murky in another kind of way, swirling with too much emotion for her to sift through from ten feet away.

There was a question in the tilt of his head, but Yona faltered under his even stare, unsure of what she'd meant to say, if she'd even meant to speak at all. She welcomed the _bang_ of the door opening that signaled Shin-ah's return with a startled jump and a short sigh of relief, running a hand through her hair and murmuring her gratitude to the blue dragon, who hurriedly set the buckets down and took his leave once more.

She was on her feet before the door could clank closed behind him, uncorking the wine and pouring it into the stone bowl, taking care not to slosh as she picked up a handful of rags and made her way over to Hak, his eyes following her the whole way. She sat down beside him, surprised at how cold her voice sounded when she ordered him to turn.

He obliged. She set to work, letting the icy veneer settle over her like a protective coating, freezing over the butterflies that rioted in her stomach, the turbulent emotions that warred in her chest. It had been nearly two months since she had been so close to him, so… intimate. Not since her embarrassment by the lake in the hidden valley.

Or, they had thought it hidden. Then a battalion of Su-Won's men had descended on them like a swarm of ants the following morning. It was only thanks to the boys' battle prowess and Jae-ha's leg they had managed to escape, dooming the soldiers they left behind to whatever fate or creative escape attempt met those trapped in the valley as they fled. Surely some must have survived, for Su-Won somehow caught word of the battle and the declaration was issued. Wanted: the lost Princess and her Dragon Warriors in one piece. Her ex-General captor? Dead or alive. They'd challenged the declaration of course, the false allegations, and in the endless flurry of war preparation there had been no time to talk since.

There were no words to be said, anyway.

A joke. Nothing more. A harmless joke. A friendly joke.

A heartbreaking joke.

She laughed to herself. It sounded hollow. _She_ was the joke.

Now, as they knelt by the washbasin, she willed her fingers to stop trembling, froze them through sheer force of will. Ice. She was a girl made of ice.

She lowered his head into the washbowl faceup and reached for the nearest bucket, dipping a few fingers in experimentally to test the temperature. Hot, but not searing. Shin-ah must have taken so long because he had gone to the trouble of warming it. She smiled to herself and made a mental note to thank him again in the morning.

She looked to Hak, who had shut his eyes once more as he waited, his lips slightly parted, looking bizarrely serene. Yona swallowed uncomfortably. "This will be a bit warm," she murmured, then dumped the entire bucket unceremoniously over his head, filling the basin just to the brim and only taking a little satisfaction in his sputter. He cut her an accusatory glance, mouth opening to form some comment about how annoying she was, and the action was so familiar, so absent for so long that she felt her frozen heart start to thaw, but the words died in his throat when she brought her fingers to the sides of his head and began to massage his scalp, comb them through his hair, easing the dried blood out of it. His eyelids fluttered shut again, and a soft groan of contentment escaped him.

Her heart stopped. Restarted. Her fingers, having momentarily froze, resumed their task. But she was aware too aware of it now, too aware of _him_. The paradoxical coarseness of his fine hair, the curve of his jawline, the shallowness of his breathing, the adam's apple bobbing at his throat; the effect she- the healing, it was the healing- was having on him.

She flipped his head over so he was facedown in the water, doubling her force and pace, taking care to lift his head from the bowl every fifteen seconds or so to allow him some air. In this manner she continued washing his hair. This was much better. She much prefered it this way. Soon enough she was done, half the water in the bowl dyed red, the other half splashed across the floor.

She coughed awkwardly. "Right. That's done. So, I'll clean the spill up quickly, if you want to towel off, then we'll bandage your head and have a look at… erm, your shirt. I mean your _ribs_."

She was a girl made of ice and she did not blush at her slip-up, nor as he bowed slightly and said, "As you wish, Princess."

She could have sworn there was an edge to his tone, just the hint of something ironic or bitter, but he looked at her solemn as the grave as he began to pull his shirt over his head.

"Wait!"

He paused, fingers at his shirt's hemline, just a sliver of stomach exposed.

"Your head… we should bandage your head first."

"Ah. Right." He crouched down and picked up three long strips of cloth as she stepped gingerly over to him, careful not to slip on the slicked floor.

She snatched them from his grasp without fanfare, not feeling anything at the feather-light phantom brush of their fingers as she did so. No flutters in her stomach. No race in her chest. Nothing at all.

One. She wrapped the first piece around his head, oblivious to the way the damp strands of hair clung to her fingertips, not wanting to let go.

Two. As she leaned closer to secure the second strip in place, she breathed in nothing but the persistent stench of alcohol and blood, impervious to the other scents that intertwined with it: sweat, pine needles, the faintest trace of smoke, the unmistakable scent of masculinity. She didn't notice, didn't breathe any more deeply than she had mere seconds ago.

Three. There. The task was done. The chill that returned to her bones as she stepped away from him was nothing more than the winter wind trickling in through cracks in the paper-thin walls.

She wrapped her arms around herself, suppressing a shiver, as he reached for the hemline of his shirt again. She did not miss the heat that radiated from him like a furnace- it was a threat to her, to her visage of ice. Hak hesitated, fingers dancing nervously on the hemline. He shot her an anxious look, as if her were afraid of upsetting her, of stepping out of line. _Now?_

A crisp nod. She was no stranger to the hard planes of Hak's chest- she had seen enough of it in the past few months, as he'd labored every day shaping their motley following into, somehow, at least semi-adequate troops, that she knew every line of it as distinctly as she'd known the layout of the palace halls. Yet she still averted her eyes, waiting until the sound rustling fabric had faded away (and then another few heartbeats, for good measure) before allowing them to wander back to the injured boy's figure. In spite of herself, in spite of knowing he had taken a beating, she gasped. She couldn't help it, couldn't stop herself, couldn't think of anything beyond the black-purple-blue whorl that spiraled from his left rib to the center of his chest, spanning down to his navel.

"Hak," she breathed. It sounded like a whimper. The colors melted together until all she could see was red. The words tumbled out of her mouth as her own chest began to burn.

Because as much as she tried to convince herself otherwise, Yona had never been a girl made of ice. She had always been the one kissed by fire, standing on the blush of dawn, blazing crimson wherever she tread. That fire poured out of her now, passion in its purest form, engulfing her.

"How could you? How could you be so irresponsible? Look at you… _look at you. Look what you've done to yourself._ We need you in your best condition tomorrow in case things go wrong- you realize this will make a difference between the amount of lives saved and lost tomorrow, Hak! _You_ make a difference!" She was burning, she was burning, she was in hell and she was burning.

"What were you thinking? How could you- _what were you thinking?_ You could have _died_. Before you even reached the battlefield. How do you expect to fight tomorrow? How do you expect to protect anyone? How do you expect to protect _me_? You made a promise. You made a promise to my father, my father the King, you swore to him- you swore you would protect me- you _swore-_ you… you…" She was burning, she was burning; she was a flame fizzling out.

"You could have died," she whispered, and the words destroyed her, snuffed her fire out so there was nothing left but ashes on her tongue.

"Princess." He reached for her hand, trembling fingers slipping between his own. "I'm here." _I'm alright. I'm alive. I'm sorry._

She let their interlocked fingers dangle in the air between them for one second, then two, one more, another, the feeling of his calloused palm against hers a tangible reassurance. But as he opened his mouth to say something, she hurriedly pulled away with a huffed intake of breath. She reached for the bandages, all business. "You can't die, Hak. I told you that you're the only one who has to stay by my side."

He lifted his arms so she could wrap the linen strips around his torso, which she did with gentle but deftly detached precision. She rambled as she wound the fabric around, determinedly distracting herself from the assault to her senses that his nearness indomitably entailed. "I know your side must hurt, but if I can wrap these without you keeling over in pain, I don't think any of your bones are broken, and there's not much to be done for the bruising. If you were bleeding, we'd wash and disinfect, but… it's miraculous, really. Just like how miraculously poor your judgement was tonight."

She shook her head slightly, chastising herself for the derailment. "That's beside the point. The bandages will prevent you from touching the bruises. Leave them alone, no poking or prodding. Other than that, I'm not sure that they do much of anything, but I don't know what else to do for you. Maybe if I'm wrong about the bones and one really is broken, these will help keep it in place. I'm sorry that this is all I can do for you. I'll go get Yun to have a look. I'm no medic." Her awkward laugh was pure relief as she tucked in the last tail of fabric and turned to flee. She managed one step before Hak's hand enveloped her own, tugging her back to him.

His eyes smoldered with disarming intensity as he said, "You're not a medic."

Annoyance bubbled in her chest. "I _know_ , I just said that. I'm sorry, I did the best I c-"

He cut her off. "You're not a medic, you're a Princess. You're the rightful heir to the throne and heart of the kingdom of Kouka. You are the daughter of the Late King Il-" surprised tears sprung into her eyes at the mention of his name- "and I made a promise to your father that I would stay by your side. That I would not let you down. Tonight I failed him. And I failed you." He sunk to the ground on his knees, head bent. "I am ashamed, and I am sorry. Please... forgive me."

Words caught in her throat at the show of such irrevocable repentance, of his unwavering loyalty. After a brief silence she knelt down beside him. His head remained bowed.

 _What had she done to deserve such a person?_

His regret was evident, his apology wholehearted. So he'd picked the wrong night to have a little too much to drink. He was forgiven for being frightened. The apology he graced her with now was more than Su-won would ever offer her, and his crimes were so incontestably worse than Hak's slip-up that they rendered the mistake obsolete.

"I don't want to lose you."

She cast all facades away and let her walls come crumbling down as she quietly confessed what had really been eating away at her heart all night.

His eyes found hers in confused disbelief, as if he wasn't sure he'd heard her correctly. With shy fingers, she took his face into her hands. "More than anyone… more than anything, Hak, I need to know that I won't- that you'll be- please…" helplessness swam in her irises. "Please, let me know that you'll be alri-"

The kiss was brief; just long enough for their hearts to beat together for one count. Two. Three.

There was no avoidance in his gaze as he pulled back, just the unmistakable flicker of _something_ , an emotion she couldn't pin down. She tried to rally her wits and salvage her pride, managing to lean away with a poise and quiet strength she hadn't believed herself capable of mustering. "I don't really think this is the time for a joke, Hak."

The flicker grew stronger. "It's not a joke." A sharp intake of breath- his or her own? She couldn't be sure. The world had fallen out of focus. "It's a promise."

His arms wrapped around her like two bandages: one for her wounds, one for her worries. She let her eyelids flutter shut as he whispered into her hair, " _I promise._ "

She fell asleep like that, cocooned in his warmth, head against his chest, repeating the two words in her mind, ingraining them in her memory. They echoed the steady _ba-dump_ of his heart.

 _I promise. I promise. I promise._

xxxxx

A/N: Sorry for the wait and thank you for all the lovely reviews from the bottom of my heart. _Aki no Ryu_ , _Lyrha971_ , _Meetrie_ , _SwaggyStyles_ , _Switchlolly007_ , _Rockin' angels_ , _bookgirl18_ \- you make my heart happy. :)

I hope the chapter is okay- it was an absolute bear to write, and I lost a section of it and had to rewrite, which was a bit discouraging to say the least. Finally got it all hammered out though, and now there's only one kiss to go- stay tuned for the conclusion, and thank you again for reading.

Much love,

Rosie :)


	6. Six

The world was ending.

Arrows whizzing through the air at breakneck speed, horses half-trampled, left to die on broken legs, heads severed from bodies, with unblinking eyes, expressions frozen forever in states of terror, mania, rage. Screams- the sounds of the universe being ripped apart at the seams. And blood everywhere, as if the Earth itself was wounded, damaged beyond repair. Raindrops fell in an unrelenting torrent; Hak thought it might be King Il, watching the carnage from the heavens, weeping, lamenting the violence his death had wrung, that which he had defied so entirely in life.

How had things come to this? They had been so close, _so close_ to freedom, to peace…

He swept his spear in a wide arc, cutting through the oncoming soldiers as easily as blades of grass. The pang in Hak's shoulder was nothing compared to the pain in his chest. Three more to his tally. How many lives had he brought to an end already? How many families would starve waiting for a father, a brother, that was never coming home? Too many. More than any one man should be able to account for.

It tortured him in his darkest moments, sleepless nights spent tossing and turning, racked with guilt. Their faces flashing through his mind, one by one, slowly, excruciatingly slowly, enough for Hak to recount every contour of their faces, every detail of their final moments, yet not slowly enough for him to ever learn their names. They haunted him. They hated him. And rightfully so.

A general at fifteen. A force of nature. A freak. _The Lightning Beast_ , they called him, to mimic the stroke of his blade. Inhuman. Unnatural. His tribe had heralded him as blessed by Raijuu, the legendary beast of thunder. But Hak knew better. There were no divine powers or mystical blessings bestowed upon him. He was nothing but a boy born from death. His first few breaths had been snatched greedily from the world as his mother had drawn her last. His father could not stomach a world without his wife, and so Hak was left alone. A baby baptised in grief, already treading on stolen time.

It made sense that it had been Mun-deok to find him by the river, all those years ago. It made sense that the Wind Tribe was made to be his home. After all, it was wind that snuffed out candlelight.

 _Mun-deok._ Even in his old age, the man was unstoppable. Hak could just make him out through the chaos to his right, matching Joo-doh thrust for thrust, his eighty years of experience serving him well.

Su-Won was nowhere near his right hand man, nowhere in sight. Perhaps he had fled the battle. Was fleeing an act of cowardice or courage? For a king, the line was not so easily drawn. Su-Won's life represented more than most. He was the embodiment of his cause, a guiding light for those who followed him. Much like the Princess, his death would signify the end of a revolution. Which required more courage: to leave behind what you love, or to stay and fight for it?

He didn't know the answer. But Hak wished the Princess had chosen the former. He wished her a thousand worlds away from this battlefield, this graveyard, this moment. Instead, he found her back to his own, slinging arrow after arrow at enemies while Zeno, in full indestructo-mode, defended her front.

He didn't need to turn to check that her arrows were finding their targets. He had trained her well. She would not miss her mark. He could feel her back taut against his, shoulders rigid, as she drew the bowstring, again and again. No longer was she the girl whose hands trembled as she took aim. She was a warrior now, hardened, assured. Hak was sorry for it. Sorry for what she'd had to be become.

He still remembered what she'd said to him their first training session, the first time she'd picked up the bow. " _I hate that part of you."_ The cruelty, the darkness. " _Still, even at the expense of others, I wish to hold a weapon to protect you!"_

 _To protect you._ How many times had he thought those words to himself? He had grown strong enough to learn restraint, to strike without killing, to knock foes unconscious without inflicting incredible pain. Yet when it came to protecting her, restraint wasn't always enough.

 _Even at the expense of others._ This too had always been true. It was never a choice, never so much as a question. The Princess came before anyone. If her life was in danger, he would strike first and deal with his own demons later. Hundreds of lives sacrificed in the preservation of one. And they tortured him, the faces, at night, but he couldn't regret them, not when he woke up to her face, alive and well and full of warmth, in the morning.

He could only regret that it still hadn't been enough. That in the end, the Princess' hands had become scratched and bruised, that she now bore scars not even honey could heal. He could hear her now, underneath the cries and pleas that echoed all around them, a steady stream. She was praying. Praying that her arrow would fly straight, and that the sacrifice would not be in vain. She prayed to Hiryuu that from pain would spring peace, and then shot her arrow into the hearts of men from the Sky Tribe, her former subjects, the people whom she wanted to help so dearly, one by one.

 _How had it come to this?_

They had met at dawn, though only the birds seemed to know it. Crow calls echoed in the distance as they woke, while heavy clouds swirled above in ominous gray, blanketing the sky so thick that no patches of blue shined through. The two armies, one swathed in royal regalia, the other bedecked in makeshift battle armor, waited with baited breath at opposite ends of the field as the heads of parties converged in the middle.

Su-Won sat tall, proud atop his steed, every inch a king. His face betrayed nothing. His gaze remained trained on the dismal horizon, even as Yona presented their terms.

" _Su-Won," she began, and though there were traces of sadness in the way she spoke the name, she did not stumble over it, as she once might have. Her eyes were clear, filled with determination, purpose... something more._

" _I do not want things to end in bloodshed. Behind me stand my people, people who were once yours. People who have sacrificed for me. People whom I have sacrificed for. People whom you have sacrificed for. I know that, in your heart, you believe that what you are doing is right. You are carrying out Uncle Yu-hon's dying wishes, avenging his death, saving the country he fought for. I know this because I know you, Su-Won, and I loved you, Su-Won. A part of me… still loves you."_

 _Though Su-Won still did not look at Yona, his hands tightened on the horse's reigns. Hak looked at the ground._

" _I love you for holding my hand when Mother died. For all the nights you slept by my side. For telling me you love my hair… I loved you even when my heart was shattered into a million pieces. And then I tried to let go of that part of myself, so that I could mend it. But I couldn't. I couldn't let go. And I really tried._

" _I think… I_ know _that you are broken too, Su-Won. That you're trying to mend yourself. You have made allies of kingdoms we used to call our enemies. The people applauded you as strong, once. But they've turned against you now. Water, Earth, Fire, Wind… the people you sought to help. I don't pretend to know what path you are on. I'm sure the path you are following is the path that you believe is best for us all. But please, Su-Won, try to see. Try to see that it is not. Try to see that in the quest for expansion our men have died. Our crops have spoiled because there are no men left to tend the fields. You've conquered our enemies, but they resent Kouka for it. Xing, Sei, Kei… they're biding their time, waiting to turn on us, to reclaim their customs, their land."_

 _She took a deep breath._

" _Su-Won. Look at me." With difficulty, Su-Won turned to face her. Hak held his breath. He felt as if the entire world had narrowed to the two figures, standing there, sixteen years dangling between them._

" _If you love Kouka like I know you do, please, stand down. Return the throne to me. It is my birthright, and my burden to bear. Please, I love the people like you do. I will lead them the best I can. I will not cast you out of the kingdom if you do not wish to leave. Kouka is your home."_

 _Another breath._

" _There's a valley. It's hidden, tucked away between the trees." Hak's gaze snapped over to hers, but she was focused on Su-Won. "I think… I think you might like it there. The beauty, the peace. Seems like a good place to start over." She smiled tentatively. "Maybe… I could even visit you. I'd certainly like to go again."_

 _She stepped towards him, reached out a hand. "Come down from your horse. Please. Come down, and we can start over."_

 _They stood frozen like that for what seemed like a long while, their gazes locked, her hand outstretched. Then Su-Won lifted his own hand, and Hak felt his heart swell, about to burst. Finally. Finally, it was over._

 _But Su-Won did not place his hand in the Princess' own. Instead he raised it high into the air. "Joo-doh," he said quietly. "Read the terms."_

 _The sky general quickly stepped forward. The spell the Princess' speech had cast was broken. He spoke rapidly, efficiently, no trace of sentiment._

" _For the murder of the late King Il, the kidnapping of the Princess, and rebellion against the crown, we demand the head of the former Son Hak, as well as his army's surrender, in exchange for our peaceful cooperation._

 _If these conditions are met, Princess Yona will be welcomed back to the throne, as King Su-Won's wife and Queen of Kouka Kingdom."_

 _For a moment, the words did not register. Then the Princess stammered, "W-what?"_

 _Hak felt his mind go numb._

 _As if from a distance, Hak heard Joo-doh explain. "The people have rebelled against King Su-Won and rallied behind you, Princess Yona. Yet we can regain their loyalty through the peaceful union of yourself and King Su-Won. Your treason will be explained as the work of former general Hak, who murdered the late King Il and kidnapped you when the King dismissed him from his post, feeling that Son Hak had become too attached to his daughter. It is perfectly plausible. Soon it will be accepted as truth. This is the ideal solution, as it minimizes casualties while allowing us to maintain the relationships we have formed with our neighboring nations. If you love the people of Kouka as you say you do, you will see this, and accept the role you must play in the solution."_

 _Yona looked faint._

" _If you do not accept these terms," Joo-doh continued, more grave, "you and your army will be considered guilty of treason. King Su-Won's army will act accordingly."_

 _For the first time, Joo-doh's professional demeanor seemed to lessen a fraction. "Princess Yona," he said, softer than before. "Surely you will see the effectiveness of this solution. The fate of your companion is… regrettable." He did not look at Hak. "But you said yourself that you loved Lord Su-Won moments ago, did you not? And that you love your people. Surely… the lives of so many outweigh this one. And Hak is a noble man. He will see the dignity in this death."_

 _Finally, someone looked at him. Joo-doh's dark eyes seemed pained, but he did not back down. "Won't you, Lord Hak?"_

 _He knew he should say something, but he couldn't think straight. Numb. All over, he was numb. There was a twinge of pain along the back of his skull, from the previous night's wound. He focused on it. Pain. He was always causing pain. The Princess had bandaged his wounds last night… had it only been last night? Mere hours before? The Princess had protected him. That was backwards. That was wrong. Protection… that was his job. Protection and pain. Pain and protection. Pain and…_

 _He stepped forward._

" _No!" Yona cried. "Hak, do not move. You promised me. You made me a promise!"_

 _A promise. Promises and pain and protection and-_

" _Princess Yona? Are you refusing our terms?"_

 _Protection and promises and pain and-_

" _I will marry Lord Su-Won, but I cannot give you Hak. He is my protector."_

 _Protector. Protector of promises and-_

" _We acknowledge the bond you share with Lord Hak, Princess Yona. But you must see, for the sake of solidarity, he cannot be allowed to live given the circumstances."_

" _No."_

" _Princess, pl-"_

 _Promises and Princess and pain and protection-_

" _Unacceptable. He is too precious to me."_

 _Precious. He is too precious to me. I promise. I promise. I promise. Princess-_

" _Is this your final answer, Princess?"_

 _Princess-_

" _I see. Then we shall send for our troops. We will keep our eyes peeled for the white flag on the field of battle, should you change your mind."_

" _I will not."_

 _The first raindrop hit the bridge of Hak's nose, slid down his cheek. Pain. Protection. Princess. Promises._

 _King Il. I'm sorry. I've failed you._

The world was ending. That was the price of Hak's stolen time. All around him, men bled and fell and rose and fell again and bled some more, were broken and remade, while the rain poured through it all, pummeling, pleading, pounding in time with Hak's hyperdrive heartbeat.

Many of these men, Hak knew, had never seen battle before. Had dreamt for it, wished for it. A chance to rise up. A chance to prove valor, to win glory. Once, he had been the same. But he had learned.

A spear swipe through a man's neck. Quick, painless. Another careened towards him, driven crazy with battle-rage.

" _You made me a promise."_

He had promised what? To keep her safe. Yet here she was, in the greatest danger she had ever been, all because of him.

A jab through the gut.

" _I promise."_

He saw six more approaching in phalanx formation from his left flank.

" _I promise."_

He yanked the spear out of the dying man's body.

" _I promise."_

He felt something give way in his shoulder, shooting pain down his spine and into his ribs. He knew if he were to look, he would find blood seeping through the bandages she had tied so carefully the night before, evidence of idiocy, byproducts of a broken vow.

all those who had fallen, still more surged to take their place. How many strong was Su-Won's army? How long had they been fighting? It seemed as if it would never end. In the back of his mind, he knew that the fighting would end eventually. Their cause would emerge victorious, guaranteed. With Shin-ah's supernatural powers, and Zeno's… but at what cost? So many had fallen already, so many lives…

" _Surely… the lives of so many outweigh this one."_

If he had spoken, if he had accepted the terms, this all would have been avoided. He would be dead by now. She would be safe. But- he'd had to protect her. He couldn't leave her; she'd said she was going to fight-

Jae-ha landed beside the Princess, his grace in stark contrast with the havoc all around them. "More arrows, my lady." He tried to keep up his usual flirty pretense, but even the green dragon seemed beat down, lackluster as he refilled her quiver. "Would you like to leave the premises? Say the word and I'll fly you away."

"No. I'll stay."

Hak grit his teeth. Jae-ha sighed. "It was worth a shot, ne?"

For the first time since the rain had begun to fall, Hak spoke. "Princess, you should go."

He felt her falter behind him, only for a moment, before notching another arrow. "How can you say that?"

"I cannot protect you. Jae-ha can take you to safety."

"I'm safe here with you."

"You're not!"

"You promised."

"I-! Please, you don't understand! My wounds- I'm sorry, Princess. I'm weakening. Go with Jae-ha."

"I will not. I will stay by your side. I will protect you."

Promises and protection and-

"Princess. I will fall. I can feel it."

"You will not!"

"I will!"

"Then I will fall, too!"

Was this what all the promises had brought him? Protection and promises and Princesses in pain- _I will fall, too._

"No," he murmured sadly. "You will not."

 _King Il, forgive me. I have failed you so many times. But let this be my redemption._

He gripped Jae-ha's arm. "Brother, raise the flag."

The green dragon's eyes widened. "Are you crazy, Lightning Beast? All this will be for nothing!"

"Only if you don't raise the flag."

He felt it wash over him, then: all his stolen moments. A newborn baby by the riverside. A naive boy atop the highest tower. A broken man, wrapping the woman he loves in his arms.

"Raise it, Jae-ha. My course is set." Jae-ha's gaze, indignant, flashed towards Hak's, ready to argue, only to be met with a kind of serenity in the younger boy's eyes. An understanding passed between them. Jae-ha softened, then turned and began to rifle around the medpack he wore, pulling out the last of the long fabric Yun had used to patch him up just a few hours before.

Yona whirled around. "Jae-ha, don't!" But he had already leapt into the air.

She turned to Hak in desperation, beating him with her fists, pleading. "Don't! Don't you dare! I'll never forgive you! You have to fight, Hak! You promised-"

Promises and Princesses and protection and pain.

Hak let go of the pain that had kept him tethered since the battle had begun, felt the numbness wash over him again, threatening to pull him under like the rain.

The rain…

The rain had stopped.

 _King Il…_

Finally, he had succeeded. Finally, he would protect her.

Around him, he heard the horns begin to trumpet. Men slowed in their slaughter. They looked up in disbelief as light began to trickle through the retreating rainclouds, illuminating the silhouette of Jae-ha, the white flag trailing behind him like angel wings, the harbinger of peace.

He heard the men around begin to laugh, begin to cry, begin to sing, and finally, Hak felt like he had done something right.

He began to turn to the Princess, smiling, but was taken by surprise as she tackled him, screaming, pushing him to the ground. Tears flowed uncontrolled from violet eyes as her hysteria grew, mounting with every pound of her fist into his chest. "I won't let them take you! I won't! I w- it's not worth it- I- Hak, I won't forgive you! They can't take you from me! I won't let go. I won't. I won't let go!" She threw her arms around his neck, burying her face in his chest. "I won't let go," she murmured feverishly into his skin. "I won't let go. I swear to you, I won't let go."

He could hear hoofsteps approaching. His time was up. "Princess."

"I won't. I won't."

"Princess."

"They'll have to take me with you."

"Princess."

"I swear to you, I won't."

"Yona."

Her name was foreign on his lips. She blinked at him, shaken. She was still crying. Why was he always making her cry?

"Again." she demanded, in a tone he had not heard from her in many months.

"What?"

"My name. Say it again."

"Yona," he said, and it was apology and explanation and confession in one. It was his failures and his lies and his secret truths, finally spoken, finally laid bare.

It was his goodbye. It was her undoing.

She launched herself at him, took his mouth with her own, and he was dimly aware that there were people all around watching and that he should not be allowing the Princess to behave in this way and that the hoofsteps were close, _so close_

and then she whispered, "I love you, too" and he wasn't aware of anything at all, nothing but the simple truth that his whole life had led to this moment, and _this_ moment, and _this_ moment, each more beautiful, more crimson than the one before.

Then he heard the horse whinny, and knew that he had stolen his last.

"Yona," he whispered between kisses, struggling to push her away as she pulled him closer. "Yona." He took her hands, pressed his forehead against hers, clasped her hands tighter to prevent her from threading her fingers between his own. "Yona," he breathed.

"You have to let go."

A sob spilled out of her like it had escaped from the deepest recesses of her heart. "I won't. Not ever."

And with this, she collapsed against him, spent.

He checked her pulse. Steady. He kissed her forehead, scooped her gently into his embrace, and rose, depositing his Princess in Kija's awaiting arms. She would awake to a new world.

Snot dripped in a rather undignified manner from Kija's nose.

"Lightning Beast, I will-"

He cut off his friend's blubbering with a hug. "I know you will. Thank you."

He thanked them in turn. Kija, Shin-ah, Zeno, Jae-ha, Yun, one by one, then all together. With them, he knew, she would be safe.

He waved goodbye to Mun-deok, to Han-dae and Tae-woo, kept at a distance by Su-Won's guards. He hoped they understood.

Then he turned to kneel before the man he had once called best friend.

Finally, _finally_ , he would make good on his promise.

xxxxxx


End file.
